Female Genital Mutilation

Baroness Manzoor Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Manzoor]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report Tackling Female Genital Mutilation in the UK by the Royal College of Nursing.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government welcome the intercollegiate report Tackling FGM in the UK, which is published this week. Female genital mutilation is illegal. It is important that children and young women are protected from this abhorrent procedure. My honourable friend Jane Ellison has supported the development of this report. As Minister for Public Health, she has stated that one of her priorities is to continue to work towards eradicating female genital mutilation with the organisations that are promoting the report, among many others.

[Baroness Manzoor (LD)]

I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he welcome, as I do, the proposal that FGM should be treated by healthcare workers as a crime and reported to the police? Does he also welcome the work of the Liberal Democrat Minister, Lynne Featherstone, in prioritising the eradication of FGM in her work in the Department for International Development?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend. Female genital mutilation is child abuse and violence against girls and women. It is also a criminal offence, and cutters and perpetrators need to be brought to justice. I pay tribute to the work currently in train in the Department for International Development, which has begun an ambitious programme to address FGM in Africa and beyond.