During my time as a Home Office and Ministry of Justice Minister, I was proud to work on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act, aiming to combat child marriage in England and Wales, alongside my brilliant colleague, Pauline Latham MP.
I’m incredibly pleased then, that as of the 27th February 2023, it has been implemented as an Act of Parliament, meaning child marriage is now banned throughout England and Wales in all of its forms and it is now a criminal offence to cause a child to enter into a marriage, including in instances where children are taken abroad for the purposes of marrying by anybody who is a UK national or resident in England and Wales, regardless of where they are in the world. The minimum legal age of marriage is now 18 in all circumstances.
The next stage is delivering a national strategy to end child marriage, including training for professionals to safeguard young people at risk. I would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to the inspirational survivors, and dedicated charities and campaigners that helped enable this change to happen - they were inspirational to work alongside and should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved. This is a huge step forward to better safeguard young people at risk in England and Wales and I’m incredibly proud to have worked on this vital legislation with Pauline and my ministerial colleagues, and will continue to support them in any way that I can as they move forward to end this terrible practice, by generating widespread awareness about the law change - a charge I am leading locally. You can find out more here: https://tinyurl.com/bded2nayand and watch a short video on this, here: https://tinyurl.com/mv974yw7.