Peter Kilfoyle, Jim McGovern, Alan Meale, Geraldine Smith, and David Taylor), together with four Liberal Democrats (Alan Beith, Colin Breed, Tim Farron, and Bob Russell). Twenty-nine Conservatives voted for the regulations (Desmond Swayne, James Duddridge, David Cameron, George Osborne, Crispin Blunt, Andrew Tyrie, Andrew Mackay, Nick Herbert, Hugo Swire, Francis Maude, Oliver Letwin, Patrick McLoughlin, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove, Andrew Mitchell, Alan Duncan, Michael Fabricant, Theresa Villiers, Graham Stuart, Andrew Lansley, Bill Wiggin, Peter Ainsworth, Robert Key, Tony Baldry, David Willetts, Nigel Evans, Jeremy Hunt, John Bercow and Eleanor Laing). In the House of Lords, Peers approved the regulations by a majority of forty-six, and the regulations came into force on 30 April 2007. Guidance on the regulations was also issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham declared his opposition to the regulations, saying that they contradicted the Catholic Church's moral values. He supported efforts to have Catholic adoption agencies exempted from sexual orientation regulations, which were ultimately unsuccessful in a judgement given on 21 July 2010. Further to this, the House of Lords was still considering an exemption to the legislation that would let religious agencies abide by their belief-based proscriptions regarding the employment of active homosexuals. Regulations Relating to Northern Ireland The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 were made on 8 November 2006 and laid before Parliament under paragraph 7(3) of the Schedule to the Northern Ireland Act 2000 since the Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended. The regulations came into force on 1 January 2007. Later in January 2007 there was an attempt to pass a motion to pray for an annulment of the regulations in the House of Lords. The resolution failed to pass by a margin of 199 to 68. In 2007, the Christian Institute (CI) and others sought a judicial review to overturn the Sexual Orientation Regulations in Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Weatherup rejected the CI's complaint, ruling that while a clause relating to harassment (a clause unique to the Northern Irish version of the Regulations) should be set aside, the remainder of the Regulations were to remain in force. See also LGBT rights in the United Kingdom References External links The Equality Act (2010) The Equality Act (2006) The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 - Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 1263 Women and Equality Unit,