Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many convictions there have been relating to forced marriage under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

Karen Bradley

We made forced marriage a criminal offence last year to better protect victims and send a clear message that this abhorrent practice is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the UK.

Data on convictions is not collated centrally. However, the first successful prosecution under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 was secured in June 2015, and the Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) most recent violence against women and girls report shows that the volume of forced marriage prosecutions completed in 2014-15 rose to 46 from 45 in 2013-14, the highest volume ever. 63% of those prosecutions were successful.

In addition, to date, over 800 civil Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been made to prevent people from being forced into a marriage and to assist in repatriating victims.