Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of victims of female genital mutilation in each of the four nations of the UK; and what steps they are taking to eradicate that practice throughout the UK.

The most recent NHS data released on 7 June showed 1,242 newly identified cases of FGM within the NHS between January and March 2016. 98% of cases were in adult women, and in the vast majority of these the FGM took place in Asia or Africa.

A 2015 prevalence study part funded by the Home Office estimated that approximately 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales are affected by FGM and 60,000 girls were born to women who had undergone it.

We have significantly strengthened the law through the Serious Crime Act 2015, including introducing FGM Protection Orders to protect girls at risk, and a mandatory reporting duty requiring specified professionals to report known cases in under 18s to the police.

We are improving the response of professionals through the Department of Health’s £4m FGM prevention programme, up to £2m from the Department for Education to support the Barnardo’s and Local Government Association’s National FGM Centre which is strengthening the social care response; and updated multi-agency guidance which we published on the 1 April and which is statutory for the first time.

FGM is a devolved matter and we work closely with the Devolved Administrations in taking forward this work.