It comes seven years after the introduction of same-sex civil unions in 2005 and six years after the number of couples forming them peaked.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics also showed that lesbian couples are markedly more likely to dissolve civil partnerships than gay men.

Family lawyers said that the patterns mirrored those for heterosexual couples in which marriages which break down typically do so between four and eight years in, with women are more likely to file for divorce than men.

According to the ONS there were 7,037 new civil partnerships formed in the UK last year, a 3.6 per cent rise on the previous year.

The rise came at a time when the debate about legalising same-sex marriage was at its height.

… Almost six out of 10 dissolutions involved female couples.

The Telegraph has the full article

(Photo: GETTY)