The House of Lords is to debate an amendment to the Civil Partnerships Bill on Friday that could lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
The rest of the UK has legalised marriage for same-sex couples in recent years and the Republic of Ireland voted to allow gay marriage in 2015, but a ban remains in place in Northern Ireland after a measure to introduce it in the same year was blocked by the DUP.
The legalisation of gay marriage has not been recently debated by members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) in Northern Ireland because Stormont has been suspended for the last two years.
The amendment being debated on Friday has been put forward by Lord Hayward and proposes legalising gay marriage in Northern Ireland with a clause that would allow the devolved government to overturn the law if it resumes, The Times reports.
'This amendment respects the role of Stormont, but also recognises the reality that those devolved institutions are not currently functioning,' he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Westminster has come under pressure from rights groups Stonewall and Amnesty International to intervene to allow same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
In a joint statement, they called on the UK Government to extend the England and Wales legislation to couples in Northern Ireland.
'The Stormont Assembly can then legislate on the matter in its own right when it returns,' they said.
'But meanwhile, LGBT+ couples must not be made to pay the price of the Assembly's collapse. Instead, they should be able to celebrate and formalise their relationships in the same way as every other part of the UK.'
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley has in the past insisted that marriage should remain 'a devolved matter that should be addressed in the NI Assembly'.
The Christian Institute's Northern Ireland Officer, Callum Webster, said: 'Stonewall is trying to take advantage of the current political instability in Northern Ireland to force its politically correct agenda on the province.
'But MPs should not be abusing the absence of a devolved assembly to impose such controversial and divisive legislation.'
