Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the consultation on Preventing and tackling forced marriage, published 15 November 2018, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a placing a mandatory reporting duty of forced marriages upon safeguarding professionals.

The UK is a world-leader in the fight to end forced marriage, with our dedicated Forced Marriage Unit leading efforts to combat it at home and abroad.

We made forced marriage a criminal offence in 2014 to better protect victims and send a clear message that this practice is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the UK. And in 2017 we introduced lifelong anonymity for victims of forced marriage to encourage more victims of this hidden crime to come forward.

We are considering our response to the public consultation. The consultation also sought views on how guidance on forced marriage could be improved and strengthened and we are updating our guidance products to reflect the findings.