Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Wednesday, 23 January 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 25 January 2008. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 30 January 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Forced Marriage

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of forced marriages which took place in the (a) UK, (b) North East and (c) Tees Valley in the most recent period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement.

Answer: The Forced Marriage Unit was established in 2005 as the Government's one stop shop for dealing with domestic and international aspects of forced marriage casework, policy and projects. Recognising the need to prevent forced marriages from taking place in the UK, in 2007 the Unit issued specific guidelines for registrars.The Forced Marriage Unit received 5,000 enquiries and handled approximately 400 cases in 2007, 167 of which involved repatriation to the UK. We do not collate statistics on where forced marriages take place, but a new system to capture data on cases is being implemented this year.

Secondary information