The research on Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs), a civil injunction designed to prevent forced marriages, uncovers the scale of the problem and proposes new measures urgently needed to better protect victims.

Forced marriage, where one or both people do not or cannot consent to a marriage, is classified as a form of domestic violence and often leads to further crimes, including rape.

The study, jointly led by the University of Lincoln and University of Bristol, highlights the pressure forced marriage puts on police forces and local authorities across the jurisdiction.

Over the past decade, around 250 FMPOs – which amounts to approximately five per week – have been approved each year.

Co-lead author Aisha K. Gill, professor of criminology at the University of Bristol, said: “This research shows us for the first time how Forced Marriage Protection Orders are a double-edged sword.

“Although they can prevent forced marriage and protect victims, these orders can also increase the risk of honour-based violence, including abduction, physical assaults, and rape.”

Since the minimum age of marriage in England and Wales was raised to 18 earlier this year, any conduct undertaken to cause a child to marry is forced marriage, even if coercion is not used.

Project lead Sundari Anitha, professor of gender, violence, and work at the University of Lincoln, said: “This recent change adds to the steps that have been taken to prevent forced marriage but we need to ensure that existing provisions deliver safety for victims.

“Although the injunctive remedy offered by Forced Marriage Protection Orders has great promise, more work must be done to fully realise the potential.”

The research’s main recommendations are to gain an understanding of more subtle forms of coercion, such as emotional pressure, and new types, for example institutional imprisonment in another country; implement better and more co-ordinated safeguarding between different agencies which also continues after the FMPO has been obtained; and introduce systems to flag up and follow up when FMPOs expire, as this is often when the pressure to marry resumes.