Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 6 May (WA 359), whether they intend to make it an offence for a British subject to be taken from the United Kingdom to be forced into marriage outside their jurisdiction.

The Coalition Government has passed legislation to make the act of forcing someone to marry a criminal offence, by means of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. The legislation comes into force on 16 June 2014.

The extra-territorial provision in this legislation means that if the prohibited acts take place outside the UK by, or to, a UK national, or a person habitually resident in England or Wales, it will be an offence under domestic law and triable in the courts of England and Wales.