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Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Clause 1, page 1, line 15, leave out ““deciding”” and insert ““ascertaining”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I will also speak to Amendment No. 6. Amendment No. 1 makes changes to the England and Wales provisions which set out that the court must have regard to a person’s well-being and the need to secure it when considering whether to make a forced marriage protection order. The amendment replaces the word ““deciding”” with the word ““ascertaining””. Amendment No. 6 makes the same amendment to the corresponding provisions in Schedule 1 dealing with the content of orders in Northern Ireland. In deciding whether to make a forced marriage protection order and what form that order should take, the court must go through a two-stage process. The first stage is the evaluation of the victim’s well-being; the second is the decision whether to exercise its powers to make an order. The High Court judges whom we consulted on the Bill suggested that the word ““ascertaining”” better describes this first stage and captures the notion of assessing a person’s well-being. I consider that the drafting change made by these amendments better expresses our purpose and is necessary for the clarity of the Bill. I am grateful to the judges for their support. I hope that noble Lords will feel able to support these changes. I beg to move.