Unofficial and unregulated Sharia law bodies are operating “everywhere in the country” preforming marriages and handing out divorces, the head of a body set up to standardise the administration of Islamic law in the UK has told MPs.

Dr Ahmad Al-Dubayan, chairman of UK Board of Sharia Councils, based in Regent’s Park Mosque in London, said it was impossible to know how many so-called sharia “councils” are operating in Britain.

But in some cases self-styled sharia authorities are operating out of small shops “maybe hidden in the basement or somewhere”, he said.