Written question asked by Margaret Moran (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 24 April 2009. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 May 2009 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 (a) Luton, (b) Bedfordshire and (c) East of England region in the last 12 months.

Answer: The Government's Forced Marriage Unit (a joint Home Office and FCO Unit, established in 2005) deal with a significant number of forced marriage cases every year. In 2008, the unit began keeping more detailed statistics on all reportings of forced marriage that were referred to the FMU. These statistics are not broken down by local area, but are broken down by regions.During the whole of 2008 the unit received reports of over 1,600 possible forced marriage cases. Of those who gave a location, 5 per cent. were in the eastern region.

Secondary information