The number of civil partnerships in the UK has dropped by 12 per cent in the past year. According to The Independent, 6,281 same-sex unions took place in 2009 - compared to 7,169 the previous year.

The figures are released as gay rights campaigners increasingly call for full gay marriage rights.

Civil partnership dissolutions, the gay equivalent of divorce, have almost doubled since 2008 – from 180 to 351. Interestingly, more women than men dissolved a civil partnership in England, Wales and Scotland in 2009.

For England and Wales, 63 per cent of 2009’s dissolved civil partnerships were to female couples. In Scotland, the same figure increased to 71 per cent, which deflates arguments that men - particularly gay men - are commitment-phobic.

There have been 40,237 same-sex unions in the first five years since civil partnerships were introduced in 2005.

I hate when marriage equality opponents use figures like this to tote that we don’t need equality. Marriage isn’t just for all the same sex couples who are ready to get married this instant - marriage equality is for all same sex couples that are to come, if they wish to get married.

But that aside, look at these “divorce” rates. 351 out of 6281. That’s a staggeringly low rate, compared to opposite-sex marriages (I can’t find 2009 figures to compare, but it’s a safe bet the ratio of divorces or marriages is higher).