ALMOST 1000 same-sex couples have tied the knot since the legislation was introduced.

The Civil Partnership Act came into force on December 5 last year, allowing same-sex couples to have their relationship legally recognised.

By the end of September 942 civil partnerships had been registered in Scotland.

Figures from the Registrar General showed that 533 male couples and 409 female couples entered into civil partnership.

That represents approximately 6-per cent of the total of 15,000 civil partnerships across Britain.

Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said: "By the end of September, more than 900 couples had registered civil partnerships in Scotland since the new legal status started last December.

"The number of civil partnerships has fallen slightly since last quarter, probably because long-term couples have already registered their partnerships."

Statistics for the third quarter of this year also revealed falls in the number of births, marriages and deaths compared with 2005.

Between July and September there were 14,183 births, down by 43 from the same period last year.

Mr Macniven said: "There has been a slight fall in the third quarter of 2006."

But he added that the number of births in the first nine months of this year was 1.6-per cent higher than the figure for the first nine months of 2005.

The number of marriages between July and September was 12,171, down 1.3-per cent from 12,334 in the corresponding third quarter of 2005, the figures showed.