There is a discrepancy between the Sudanese Child Act of 2010, under which anyone under the age of 18 is considered to be a child, and religious law, under which anyone under the age of 11 is considered to be a child. Along with the Sudanese National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW), we have lobbied the Government to ensure compliance with the Child Act and the removal of any discrepancies which lead to under-age children being married.

Broader work on child rights forms part of a programme supported by DFID, and run by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which focuses on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This programme has included a workshop on reaching a national position on the legal age of marriage. DFID is also providing funding to UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), which will include data on the percentage of women who were married by the time they reached 18. The findings of that survey, which will report by the end of 2014, will inform our discussions with the Government of Sudan.

DFID worked closely with the NCCW to ensure that the Government was represented at the Girl Summit which took place in London in July, and which had a particular focus on FGM and Child and Forced Marriage (CEFM). We welcome the Government of Sudan’s subsequent signature of the Girl Summit Charter, which includes a public commitment to ending CEFM. We are actively following up with the Government of Sudan to ensure that they maintain momentum on these issues.

There is a discrepancy between the Sudanese Child Act of 2010, under which anyone under the age of 18 is considered to be a child, and religious law, under which anyone under the age of 11 is considered to be a child. Along with the Sudanese National Council for Child Welfare (NCCW), we have lobbied the Government to ensure compliance with the Child Act and the removal of any discrepancies which lead to under-age children being married.

Broader work on child rights forms part of a programme supported by DFID, and run by UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which focuses on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). This programme has included a workshop on reaching a national position on the legal age of marriage. DFID is also providing funding to UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), which will include data on the percentage of women who were married by the time they reached 18. The findings of that survey, which will report by the end of 2014, will inform our discussions with the Government of Sudan.

DFID worked closely with the NCCW to ensure that the Government was represented at the Girl Summit which took place in London in July, and which had a particular focus on FGM and Child and Forced Marriage (CEFM). We welcome the Government of Sudan’s subsequent signature of the Girl Summit Charter, which includes a public commitment to ending CEFM. We are actively following up with the Government of Sudan to ensure that they maintain momentum on these issues.

The Government does not consider that it is necessary to amend the age at which people can enter into marriage. No person under the age of 16 can marry in England and Wales and any marriage under that age will be void. In England and Wales it is possible to marry from the age of 16 with parental consent and from 18 without consent. The Government believes the existing provisions that require parental consent for people under the age of 18 to marry provide adequate protection for people entering into marriage.

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), which is jointly funded and run by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, leads the Government's work to tackle forced marriage working with partners across government, statutory agencies and non-governmental organisations. This multi-agency group meets quarterly at the FMU Partnership Board to review progress on actions developed to tackle these issues.

The Government are committed to tackling the practice of forced marriage and providing the best protection possible to victims.

Through our unique cross-government Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) we do more to protect and support victims than any other country in the world. Our embassies and High Commissions conduct hundreds of rescues and repatriations every year of British nationals who are facing forced marriage abroad. Last year the FMU provided advice or support in almost 1,500 cases.

The FMU has worked to increase dialogue and action on forced and early marriage internationally. The recently established International Partnership Board

(IPB) on forced marriage engages with London-based embassies and High Commissions across a number of countries, including of: the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, Austria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The focus of the IPB is to share ideas and experiences, review forced marriage legislation around the world and build an international coalition to work towards ending this abhorrent practice.

Child marriage is an issue that cuts across all four pillars of the Department for International Development's Strategic Vision for Girls and Women, so we work closely with a range of partners on programmes relevant to raising the age of marriage.

This is both at the level of programmes in country and also through our international policy dialogue with non-governmental organisations and United Nations (UN) agencies, including: UN Women; UN Children's Fund; the UN Population Fund; and, the World Health Organisation.

We have targeted programmes to tackle child marriage in a number of countries including Bangladesh, Zambia and Ethiopia. Alongside this a number of our programmes, for example in education, family planning and broader empowerment for girls and women, will impact on the age of marriage. Projects such as delivering cash transfers to girls to keep them in school or working with religious leaders to amplify voices that speak out against child marriage are proving to be very effective ways to prevent early and forced marriage.

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education is taught on a non-statutory basis, and therefore schools are free to decide on what they teach in PSHE education. Our current programmes of study, which many schools follow, propose that pupils are taught about the importance of respect and consent within relationships; and about the nature of marriage and other stable, loving partnerships.

We are reviewing PSHE education, to determine how we can improve the quality of all PSHE teaching. As part of the review, we are revising the current guidance on sex and relationships education (to which schools must have regard) in order to strengthen the teaching of relationships, positive parenting and sexual consent.