Suspicions of a sham marriage aren't proof

More than one 'sham' marriage happens every hour. So said headlines this morning in the Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Express. Here was the Mail's take:

"A sham marriage 'every hour' in the UK: More than 7,500 fake ceremonies reported but just 90 people thrown out of the country"

But all is not what it seems, at least from the headlines. The figures only represent the number of suspicions reported to the Home Office, some of which are reported by registrars and most of which are reported by the general public. Some of these reported suspicions will presumably be about the same marriage too which, even if all suspicions were correct, means the overall number would be lower.

The figures are based on an answer to a Parliamentary question from Keith Vaz MP.

There are no figures collated nationally on the number of suspicions found to be correct, so there is no straightforward way to get evidence on how often sham marriages occur.

The Minister providing the figures also urges caution that an arrest or removal does not necessarily indicate the marriage was a sham.