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Minimum marriage age to be raised in 2023
Only people aged 18 or above will be able to marry or enter a marriage or civil partnership from February next year.
Currently, 16- and 17-year-olds can marry with parental consent, but this will cease to be the case on 27 February next year, when the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act comes into force. At that point, 18 will become the minimum age in all circumstances.
The Act was originally introduced by Conservative MP Sajid Javid to address the problem of underage teenagers being forced into arranged or abusive marriages. It will therefore also apply to both cultural and religious marriage ceremonies that are never properly registered and so not legally binding.
Under current legislation, forced marriage is only an offence if:
• the instigator uses threats or coercion; and/or
• the participant lacks the mental capacity to consent to marriage.
When the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act comes into force, causing a child under the age of 18 to enter a marriage will become a criminal offence in itself, subject to fines and up to seven years in jail.
The new rules do not apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the minimum age for marriage will remain 16.