Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of specialist FGM clinics on survivors of FGM in the UK.

While NHS England and NHS Improvement have not made a formal assessment, we would expect local commissioners to follow the guidance to support commissioners in meeting the needs of women and girls with female genital mutilation (FGM).

NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to gain an understanding of the services required to inform local commissioners’ decision-making via the National Health Service FGM clinics project. NHS England and NHS Improvement are now evaluating the outcomes of the pilot study, while working with local systems to enable future provision.