Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has provided to local authority children's services on the practice of breast ironing.

Breast ironing is child abuse and it is illegal. It cannot be excused as a cultural or traditional practice. Children’s services should safeguard children from this as from any other form of abuse. Statutory guidance for local authorities and others on how to safeguard children can be found in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’[1].

The Home Office is leading cross-Government work to tackle so-called honour-based violence, and the Department for Education contributes to this work. I refer the Hon. Member to the response submitted by the Home Office to the Parliamentary Question on this issue, No. 34114, on 19 April 2016.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf