After the gay marriages ... divorce

A year after gay marriages were introduced in the capital, London has had its first gay divorces.

Five of the 314 gay partnerships registered with the Greater London Authority have broken down irretrievably.

Intriguingly, the rate of breakdown is almost exactly the same as that for heterosexuals after one year of marriage.

Of the 268,000 heterosexual couples who hitched nationwide in 1999, 3,494 of them divorced in 2000, a rate of 1.3 per cent.

The London Partnership Register, introduced by Ken Livingstone last year, shows that 1.6 per cent of the officially recognised gay and lesbian relationships have ended in " deregistration".

The first gay "marriages" took place last September at the GLA's former HQ in Victoria and marked the fulfilment of an election pledge by the Mayor to introduce an official "partnership register" in the capital.

Couples declare their commitment to each other and sign a document giving their relationship mayoral recognition. The document is not recognised in law but Mr Livingstone says he hopes that will eventually change.