New guidelines to prevent vulnerable young Asian girls being forced into marriage were unveiled by the Government today.

Campaigning MP Ann Cryer - who revealed up to 300 girls a year are removed from Bradford schools and flown to Pakistan to wed - has helped draft the document.

Every social worker in England will receive a copy of the guidelines so they can help girls, some as young as 12, who have been - or fear they may be - forced to marry.

Four Government departments - the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Department for Education and Skills and Department of Health - plus the Association of Directors of Social Services have helped shape the document.

Keighley MP Mrs Cryer, a Labour backbencher, said the guidelines were "an excellent idea".

She said: "The problem is reaching epidemic proportions and we need to act urgently.

"It is vitally important social workers are aware of these guidelines - if a girl contacts them saying she is being forced into a marriage, and the social worker does not know how to handle the situation, the girl is lost."

Mrs Cryer is also urging education ministers to ensure copies of the guidelines are placed in secondary schools and universities.

She said: "If a girl has very grave worries, it is often the teacher who notices first - so they should also be aware of how to help."

Schools Minister David Miliband is understood to be reluctant to "bog down" over-burdened teachers with more literature. He insists guidelines will be posted on the Internet.

But Phil Green, Bradford Council's director of education, is thought to be "very agreeable" to having copies in classrooms.

The guidelines will set out different scenarios which could challenge a social worker contacted by a girl threatened with a forced marriage.

The dossier will offer information such as what laws are being broken, how to handle the situation if the victim is already abroad, which agencies can offer advice, and the possibilities of kidnapping or "honour killings" - where the girl is murdered for refusing to marry.

Earlier this year, Mrs Cryer told the Telegraph & Argus how parents were ordering girls to live with relatives thousands of miles away where they prepare to become brides. Families can receive sums of £10,000 for their daughter's hand, it is understood.

Following the marriage - usually without consent - the girls return to Britain to support their new husband's visa application.

Mrs Cryer and Bradford North MP Terry Rooney have dealt with dozens of harrowing cases.

In one case, a girl was sent to Pakistan at 12, married at 14 and returned to Keighley aged 16 with a two-year-old son.

Mrs Cryer is seeking changes in the British law so aiding and abetting a forced marriage, or coercing forced marriage, becomes a crime.

Action to prevent forced marriage currently has to be brought about through the laws on false imprisonment, threatening behaviour, harassment or assault.