News roundup: Forced marriages, school places appeals and higher targets for primary schools

A specialist government initiative to tackle forced marriages helped up to 250 children in 2012, the BBC reports. The Forced Marriage Unit, which is jointly operated by the Foreign Office and Home Office, reported dealing with a total of 1,485 cases. The youngest case involved a two-year-old. Of the children, 82 per cent were female. Civil courts have the power to issue Forced Marriage Protection orders to prevent weddings from taking place.

The appeal system for parents who fail to get their children into academies or faith schools in England may not operate fairly, according to a legal watchdog. A letter sent from the chairman of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) to Education Secretary Michael Gove raised concerns that some appeals for schools outside local authority control lacked independence and transparency. According to the BBC, Richard Thomas called for Gove to "identify an organisation that is well placed to provide an independent appeals service".

Primary schools will have to achieve better standards from 2014 or be taken over by an academy sponsor, the Department for Education has announced. Currently primary schools are expected to have a minimum 60 per cent of pupils achieving a minimum standard in reading, writing and maths, but this will now rise to 65 per cent. Schools judged by Ofsted as neither good nor outstanding, who are not closing the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils, will also be ordered to draw up plans for how their spend their pupil premium money.

An inquiry into child sexual exploitation has been launched by a group of members of the Scottish Parliament today. The Public Petitions Committee will examine the effectiveness of existing practice and guidelines and look at what still needs to be done. STV reports that the inquiry was launched after the committee considered a petition by Barnardo's Scotland, calling on the Scottish government to address child sexual exploitation.

And finally, young people in Cardiff who drink too much could find themselves waking up wearing a yellow wristband, as part of a scheme to highlight the risks of alcohol. The BBC reports that student volunteers and police will put the bands on revellers they find worse for wear on their way home. The bands feature text asking: "How did you get home last night?" The scheme is operating alongside a minibus service that patrols busy student areas for people in trouble.