Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure better co-ordination of guidance given to medical practitioners, teachers, and faith leaders on reporting and protecting girls from female genital mutilation.

Tackling Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an important part of this Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We are focused on preventing these crimes from happening in the first place, supporting and protecting survivors and those at risk, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Frontline professionals and agencies with safeguarding responsibilities are crucial to protecting survivors and those at risk of FGM. Statutory guidance is therefore in place for agencies with safeguarding responsibilities to equip them with information on the law on FGM and to provide detailed advice on identifying FGM cases and how to coordinate appropriate responses.

The guidance also makes clear the importance of reporting for safeguarding professionals. It includes explicit reference to the mandatory reporting duty of some professionals (teachers, health and social care workers), making clear that under the law, they must rapidly inform the police of ‘known’ FGM cases among under-18s.

In addition to statutory guidance, there is an official FGM Resource Pack available for professionals which highlights what works in protecting survivors and those at risk of FGM. The Resource Pack includes training and assessment resources, as well as information about available specialist support services to enable coordinated responses.

Finally, the Government has developed free e-learning on FGM for frontline staff in healthcare, police, Border Force and children’s social care.