Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage: Havering

(asked on 23rd July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of children under the age of 18 living in the London Borough of Havering who have (a) undergone female genital mutilation in the UK, (b) undergone female genital mutilation abroad and (c) who have been subjected to a forced marriage in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 7th September 2018

Female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage are terrible forms of abuse, and this Government is clear that we will not allow political or cultural sensitivities to get in the way of tackling them. Work to put a stop to these crimes is an integral part of our cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, published in 2016.

Data on FGM includes a 2015 City University and Equality Now study, part funded by the Home Office, which estimated that 137,000 women and girls who had migrated to England and Wales were living with the consequences of FGM, and approximately 60,000 girls aged 0-14 were born in England and Wales to mothers who had undergone FGM. The study also provides a breakdown of FGM prevalence estimates by local authority area which is available online at http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/12382/.

In addition, NHS digital publishes data on the prevalence of FGM within the NHS in England. The most recent quarterly and annual statistics were published in June and July 2018 respectively. A detailed breakdown of these statistics, including by local authority and age, is available online at https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/female-genital-mutilation.

The joint Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Home Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) operates a public helpline to provide advice and support to victims, those at risk, and professionals. Statistics on the number of cases dealt with by the FMU, including a breakdown by region and age, are published annually and available online at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/forced-marriage#statistics-on-forced-marriage-collected-by-fmu . A further breakdown of this information (e.g. by London borough) is not collated centrally.

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