The minimum age for marriage in England and Wales rises to 18. In fact, the law approved last year by the British Parliament on a proposal from the Tory government (with broad bipartisan consensus extended to Labor and other opposition forces) is in force today, which strictly raises the minimum age to get married as an anti-abuse function or join as a couple from 16 to 18 years old.
Civil unions and religious ceremonies are also prohibited
The news was hailed as an important and positive moment for the Kingdom and human rights both by the Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister of Rishi Sunak’s government, Dominic Raab, and by representatives of civil society associations who have been engaged on this front for some time. The new law prohibits – under the age of majority of both contracting parties – both marriages, civil unions or any traditional religious wedding ceremony (even if it has no legal value); therefore the possibility of joining between the ages of 16 and 18 is no longer admitted, not even with the authorization of the parents.
The phenomenon of arranged marriages
The law also applies to anyone who marries or has gotten married abroad, an act which is now considered null and void on the island. And it aims in particular at protecting young people from forms of forced or combined marriage: a phenomenon considered to be growing, especially in some communities originating from Asian or African countries, whose dimensions are in constant demographic expansion among ‘new British’ citizens descendants of ‘immigrants. The latest data available from the census authorities in 2018 identified at least 118 cases of girls and 23 of underage boys forced to marry in the Kingdom.
Source-tg24.sky.it