The legal age you can get married in England and Wales is set to be raised

The legal age in which you can marry could be raising, it has been reported today.

As it stands, someone as young as sixteen can get married with parental consent. But next week, former chancellor Sajid Javid will be introducing a private member’s bill that will make it illegal for anyone to marry below the age of eighteen.

For decades, the legal age of sixteen has been embroiled in controversy, with many campaigners arguing that the law has been facilitating sexual abuse and forced marriage.

Javid even said that he viewed sixteen-year-olds being forced to marry as ‘child abuse’.

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He told The Times: “The British government is working tirelessly to end child marriage in the developing world and yet our own laws are permitting child marriage by the back door.

“It’s clear that we must legislate to close this loophole so that vulnerable children cannot be pushed into such serious and life-changing commitments before they are ready.”

Javid added that the government have not yet confirmed that they’ll be supporting his bill, but he is optimistic that they will.

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Charities including Barnardo’s have backed Javid’s stance on the matter, stating that the young legal age contributes to sexual violence and domestic abuse, and have campaigned to ban under-eighteens marrying in England and Wales.

“Unacceptably, the onus is on the child to secure their own protection under forced marriage law by speaking out against their own family and community, which can have dangerous consequences and understandably many children are too terrified to do,” a campaign letter reads, as per The BBC.