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Meeting of the Parliament 02 February 2011

02 Feb 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

McGrigor, Jamie Con Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV

As members have said, we are clear that there is a key and fundamental distinction between forced marriages, in which one or both people are forced to marry against their free will and which often involve abduction or abuse, and arranged marriages, to which both parties give their free consent. Although the evidence suggests that the incidence of forced marriage in Scotland is low—we support moves to improve the collection of data on that—it is an extremely high-impact occurrence, so it is right that the Parliament should take strong action against it. It is also right that we bring Scotland into line with legislation elsewhere in the UK to prevent forced marriage and protect victims.

In paragraph 16 on page 5 of the Equal Opportunities Committee’s stage 1 report, I read about the distressing case that was outlined by Laura McCrum of Saheliya in which a young girl of 15, the bride, and a young disabled British national with learning difficulties were turned into tragic victims through no wish of their own and to their considerable detriment through a forced marriage. That is the sort of thing that we hope the bill will prevent. The bill sets out Scotland’s position on forced marriage—namely, that we will not condone it.

There is widespread general support for the bill from many organisations, including Shakti Women’s Aid, Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and ACPOS, to name but a few. I was struck by the comments of Assistant Chief Constable Iain Livingstone of ACPOS, who told the committee:

“The bill’s ... value lies in its public message. We need to bring the matter into the open and to secure an absolute consensus that forced marriage will not be tolerated.”—[Official Report, Equal Opportunities Committee, 23 November 2010; c 2175.]

We support the committee’s calls for the Scottish Government to continue to engage with all relevant religious authorities on the issue of nullification of forced marriages, to raise awareness of the bill among all religious organisations and communities and to ask for their points of view.

When the Parliament debated the issue in December 2008, as the then communities spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives I said that we were ready to work with the Scottish Government to ensure that the legislation

“is as effective as possible, in the interests of all victims and potential victims of forced marriage.”—[Official Report, 4 December 2008; c 13143.]

That remains our approach. We look forward to the subsequent stages of the bill and to achieving a positive outcome for all in what is a sensitive area.

Louise Johnson told the committee:

“The beauty of having a forced marriage protection order is that it does what it says on the tin”.—[Official Report, Equal Opportunities Committee, 23 November 2010; c 2180.]

She beautifully summed up what the bill should do.

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