In 2012, the United Kingdom government launched a public same-sex marriage consultation, intending to change the laws applying to England and Wales. Its Marriage Bill was signed into law on 17 July 2013. The Scottish government launched a similar consultation, aiming to legalise same-sex marriage by 2015. On 4 February 2014, the Scottish Parliament passed a bill to legalise same-sex marriages in Scotland as well as ending the "spousal veto" that would allow spouses to deny transgender partners the ability to change their legal gender. Same-sex marriage was extended to Northern Ireland on 21 October 2019 and the law came into effect on 13 January 2020.