Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the outcome of criminalising female genital mutilation.

FGM is a crime and it is child abuse. The Government will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls. We significantly strengthened the law in 2015 in order to improve protection for victims and those at risk, and to break down the barriers to prosecution.

The first UK conviction for FGM took place on 1 February 2019 and the perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The Home Office does not collate information on prosecutions centrally. Information on FGM prosecutions can be found in the Violence Against Women and Girls Reports, which are published annually by the Crown Prosecution Service.