Current status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 4 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the UN defining any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult, or another child, as child marriage, whether it is considering increasing the minimum age for marriages and civil partnerships in Scotland to 18, and, if so, what work it has already carried out on this matter.
The Scottish Government is committed to consulting on whether we should legislate to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership to 18 from 16. We will also consult on whether to legislate to extend the existing forced marriage or forced civil partnership offence so that any conduct with the intention of causing a person under 18 to marry or enter a civil partnership would be a criminal offence, including where there is no evidence of coercion.
The consultation will also seek views on other aspects of family and succession law, as set out in the answer to question S6W-23651 on 7 December 2023.
We anticipate the consultation will be published later this year.
The consultation will be accompanied by a range of relevant draft impact assessments, including draft Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments and draft Equality Impact Assessments.
As part of our considerations on the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership, we have engaged with a wide range of organisations and interested individuals in order to gather views and evidence. I refer the member to the answers to S6W-16048 on 5 April 2023 and S6W-19070 on 29 June 2023 for further information on who we have met with.
We will consider the consultation responses as we reach decisions on our next steps on the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.