The steps announced by David Cameron on forced marriages will go some way towards helping to halt this continued anomaly in our legal system.

Although the Government has not gone as far as some would like and completely criminalised forced marriages, the Prime Minister has revealed that it will now be an offence to breach Forced Marriage Prevention Orders.

And he has called on the Home Office to carry out a consultation into whether such marriages should be made completely illegal – something of a reversal after the Home Office had rejected a call by the Home Affairs Committee to do just that in July this year.

It is important to make a clear distinction between a forced marriage and an arranged marriage. Clearly forcing someone to marry someone else against their will is completely unacceptable and should be against the law.

There are concerns that making the practice illegal could deter victims from coming forward. And as former Keighley MP Ann Cryer, who has long fought for action on this issue, says, it is also important that civil measures remain in place and help is available for girls before the forced marriages actually happen.

As Mr Cameron says, forcing girls to marry against their will is tantamount to slavery and is something that should not be tolerated.

But it is vital that this consultation establishes whether making such ceremonies completely illegal will help eradicate them, or simply lead to this intolerable practice becoming more secretive.

And it is also vital that support services for those who may be forced into marriage and those who have been are easily available for all.