Ministry of Justice

Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 - Relevant Third Party


Status: Closed - with response

Open date: 12 December 2007

Close date: 14 March 2008

Responses published: 13 November 2008

The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 enables applications by a relevant third party on behalf of a victim of forced marriage. This consultation asked for responses on what need there is for relevant third parties, who should act, and what safeguards might be needed.

Consultation paper

Responses

There were 55 responses to the consultation from a wide range of respondents.

After careful consideration of all the responses, we have decided that local authorities should be able to act as relevant third parties for both adults and children. This change will come into effect once the necessary safeguards, as identified by respondents, have been put in place.

However, we will also look to pilot a scheme with a local Independent Domestic Violence Adviser as a relevant third party, in view of the importance of the voluntary sector in supporting victims of domestic violence. If this proves successful, we would look at extending the relevant third party provisions more widely across Independent Domestic Violence Advisers as well as other voluntary sector organisations.