Minimum marriage age raised from 16 to 18 in England and Wales

Adults who facilitate child marriages could face up to seven years in jail

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People in England and Wales must now be aged 18 and over to get married.

On Tuesday, a backbench bill was approved by the House of Lords and cleared Parliament without opposition.

The bill, which was first introduced in June last year, is set to become law later this week after it receives Royal Assent, and will override the previous law that stated people can get married at the age of 16 with parental consent.

Under the new law, adults could face up to seven years jail time for facilitating underage marriages. Participating children will not face jail time.

The law also applies to cultural or religious marriages not registered with the couples’ local council.

The move has been praised by anti-child marriage campaigners. Campaigner Payzee Malika, who’s sister, Banaz, was killed in an “honour killing”, tweeted that this new law “could have saved her”.

Malika herself became a child bride at age 16, something she reflected on as the new bill passed.

“This morning my thoughts were clouded with the day I became a child bride,” she said. “My day started today and that day, very early. Anxious both days. Scared both days. Tears both days.

“But today tears of joy roll down my face because I know what this means for girls like me.”

Malika tweeted: “I’m just a girl from Kurdistan. I couldn’t imagine in a million years I would be working to end child marriage, sitting in Parliament hearing an incredible woman talking about the need to end child marriage.

“I will keep saying it, this is life saving. This is change.”

Mevan Babakar, the interim CEO at the Democracy Club, tweeted: “This bill passing hopefully protects people directly, but also protects a wider group from the shockwaves of violence too. Thank you to everyone involved in getting it passed, and thank you to Payzee for showing us a different way.”

The law only applies to couples in England and Wales. The minimum age of marriage in Scotland remains as 16 and couples do not need parental consent.

In Northern Ireland, the age is also 16 but couples do need parental consent.