A TOTAL of 29 same-sex couples took part in civil partnership ceremonies in Tayside and Fife early this year, figures show.

The General Register for Scotland has included the new partnerships in the usual statistics for births, marriages and deaths for the first quarter of 2006.

Fife leads the way for the same-sex ceremonies, which give stronger financial and social rights to gay and lesbian partners.

Fife has seen 14 ceremonies—10 between men and four between women.

However, Angus is at the other end of the scale, with just one male and one female partnership.

Since the Civil Partnership Act came into force in December, Dundee has seen ceremonies with three male couples and one female couple.

In Perth and Kinross, there were six male and three female ceremonies.

Across Scotland, a total of 343 civil partnerships were recorded in the first three months of the year.

Registrar general Duncan Macniven said, “Local registrars have been exemplary in introducing this new legislation, helping same-sex partners to have a relaxed and happy experience on their important day.”

From January to March, 259 civil partnerships—167 male and 92 female—were registered, with 84 more (53 male and 31 female) in December.

The same period recorded 13,568 births, an increase of 212 (1.6 %) on last year.

The 14,876 recorded were 741 (4.7 %) fewer than in the first quarter of 2005.

There were 3493 marriages, down 9%.