Bill to raise minimum age of marriage to 18 taken over by Pauline Latham

On 16 June 2021 a new Bill looking at the minimum age of marriage was presented to Parliament by Sajid Javid through the ballot procedure. He presented the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill which is a private members’ Bill looking to raise the minimum legal age of marriage to 18 in England and Wales. Since Mr Javid has now become the new Health Secretary in place of Matt Hancock, sponsorship of this private members Bill has been taken over by Pauline Latham, the Member of Parliament for Mid-Derbyshire. She has campaigned to end child marriage for more than three years, and brought forward a similar Bill in the last parliamentary session.

The Bill will receive its second reading on 19 November 2021 but the specific wording and details contained within the Bill have not yet been published but it will surely make interesting reading when it does.

Amanda Erskine is a solicitor in the Family department at Barker Gotelee Solicitors in Suffolk.

Ipswich Family Solicitors – for more information on our range of legal services, please call the team on 01473 611211 or email [email protected]