Clause 1

Part of Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:45 am on 17 July 2007.

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Photo of Dominic Grieve Dominic Grieve Shadow Attorney General 10:45, 17 July 2007

I take the Minister’s point. That is why I approach these matters with some diffidence. It would  not be very onerous to have such a pre-registration system, but that might not be possible within this Bill. If a person intends to marry somebody abroad, whoever it might be, and goes to the register office, registers the intention and gives the names of the parties and the date on which the marriage is expected to take place, then it is done; there is no more to it than that. It simply means that there is a mechanism by which the registrar in this country is alerted if there are any circumstances in which a marriage abroad might be a marriage made without consent. It seems to me to be a simple device, but I appreciate that, because of the way in which the Bill is worded, it might be difficult to put it in. However, I would ask the Minister to bear it in mind; I really do not think that it is discriminatory.