Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the prevalence of arranged marriages in the UK.

The Government has not made a recent assessment on the prevalence of arranged marriages in the UK.

In an arranged marriage the families take a leading role in choosing the marriage partner, but the marriage is entered into freely by both parties.

This is in contrast to a forced marriage, where one or both people do not or cannot consent to the marriage and pressure or abuse is used to force them into the marriage.

It is also a forced marriage when anything is done to make someone marry before they turn 18, even if there is no pressure or abuse.

More information on forced marriage can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/forced-marriage