Sex: Females

(asked on 14th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ban virginity testing in the UK.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 24th December 2020

We are committed to safeguarding vulnerable women and girls. The World Health Organization (WHO) is clear that virginity testing is a violation of the victim’s human rights and can have an adverse impact on their physical, psychological and social wellbeing. The WHO also state that such tests have no scientific merit or clinical indication.

The General Medical Council advise that doctors are not required to provide intimate examinations that they have assessed as not clinically appropriate. If the examination is for a child or young person, doctors must assess their capacity to consent to the examination and must promptly raise concerns with an appropriate authority if they think a child or young person is at risk of or suffering abuse.

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