Victoria Borwick
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Female Genital Mutilation
Victoria Borwick Excerpts(8 years, 11 months ago)
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Victoria Borwick (Kensington) (Con)
I welcome all the comments that have been made and the positive way in which we are tackling this subject. Kensington has a high proportion of the Somali community and is one of the test areas in London where different trials are taking place on how to break down the barriers.
I welcome the Minister’s comments about looking at other ways of working together. Sadly, as those of us who have worked in this area know, if a mother has been cut it is quite likely that her children will be cut. We have the problem, as other Members have identified, that although FGM is picked up in the NHS, as a result of all the various regulations we have, quite rightly, on safeguarding people’s data, the information does not always reach the other agencies that can then follow through. When an older sister is cut and it comes to the attention of the school, there does not seem to be a system for getting the younger sister protected. Those are small initiatives.
The Committee’s aim is to eliminate FGM. Of course we should start getting prosecutions, but we also need to get underneath to the underlying communities. I welcome the comments from the hon. Member for Luton North about the cultural importance of getting men on side in the debate and changing the culture so that FGM is not an expectation. Whether we believe in God or not, we are born as we are born and it is not necessary to be cut of mutilated. That is the basis on which one should work with faith groups and community groups in order to get the message over.
I welcome the Minister’s approach in looking at a more collegiate way of working together across all the agencies and getting the NHS to feel confident about sharing data with schools and vice versa, rather than constantly being hung up about the Data Protection Act. If we can find a more positive way through the various things that stop us talking to each other, the sooner this terrible practice will be eliminated.