Legal age to marry in England set to be raised to 18
The legal age to marry in England will be raised to 18 under government plans to clamp down on forced marriages, the Justice Secretary has signalled.
Robert Buckland said it was "no secret" that he believed the minimum age to be married should be lifted to prevent the misuse of parental consent in some religious communities.
Mr Buckland added that while parental consent for under-18s had been intended to protect young people from making "ill-advised life choices", he believed it was now often being used to "commoditise marriage and to propagate what I think is child abuse".
The issue has been thrown into the spotlight by Sajid Javid, the former Chancellor, who has put forward a backbench bill to end a rule that allows 16 and 17-year-olds to marry with their parents' permission.
This currently applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while in Scotland the legal age to marry is 16.
Official figures show that 43 teenage boys and 140 teenage girls were married with parental consent in 2017, although campaigners warn that this may not capture those who married in non-legal religious ceremonies.
Mr Javid said research showed most of these unions were "coerced or forced for cultural and religious reasons" and that raising the legal age to marry remained "one glaring thing that stands out" in tackling the situation.
Asked about the former Chancellor's bill, Mr Buckland told Times Radio: "It's no secret that the principle of the need to protect children and young people is very much at the core of my thinking, which is why I do believe that the age of marriage should be raised.
"There are too many examples, I'm afraid, of the mechanism of parental consent – which of course was originally designed to protect young people from making perhaps ill-advised life choices – being frankly misused to commoditise marriage and to propagate what I think is child abuse."
Asked again about raising the legal age to 18, he said: "That's certainly what I believe – it puts us in line with other countries as well.
"We are world leaders in child protection. Our legislation is amongst the best in the world. I think going this stage further will again reinforce the work that we have done in England and Wales to protect children and young people – that has got to be a good thing."
