Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have issued for decisions about prosecuting individuals in relation to female genital mutilation offences.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The CPS has legal guidance for all prosecutors dealing with potential cases involving female genital mutilation, which it keeps under review. This guidance has recently been revised to reflect the practical challenges in these cases and to provide clarification on piercing and cosmetic surgery. This was done in consultation with key stakeholders and published in autumn 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many female genital mutilation protection orders were issued in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, (4) 2018, and (5) 2019.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
We have not previously collected data on the number of FGM cases received under the mandatory reporting duty. However, to improve understanding of the prevalence of so called ‘honour-based’ abuse, including FGM, the Government amended the police Annual Data Requirement (ADR) to require police forces, from April 2019, to record where a crime has been committed in the context of preserving the ‘honour’ of a family or community. This new collection is also capturing police recorded offences of FGM which were initially reported to the police under the mandatory reporting duty. Subject to data quality checks, we expect the first dataset under this new mandatory ADR collection to be published by autumn 2020.
The Government will continue to keep the changes made in the Serious Crime Act 2015 under review in order to ensure that they are working effectively.
The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly statistics on the number of FGM Protection Orders (FGMPOs) issued by the family courts in England and Wales, which can be found via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
The figures from 2015-2019 are set out in the table below. To note that FGMPOs were introduced in July 2015 and the figures for 2019 cover the period up to 30 September 2019. Figures for the final three months of 2019 will be published in due course.
2015 | 32 |
2016 | 64 |
2017 | 109 |
2018 | 143 |
2019 | 141 |
Total | 489 |
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many reports of cases of female genital mutilation, or suspected female genital mutilation, they have received under the mandatory reporting for under-18s duty in the Serious Crime Act 2015 since that Act received Royal Assent.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation for under 18s duty.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the outcome of criminalising female genital mutilation.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there has been any increase in those who commit female genital mutilation being (1) prosecuted, and (2) found guilty, in the UK since the Serious Crime Act 2015 received Royal Assent.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been (1) prosecuted for, and (2) found guilty of, female genital mutilation in the UK.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
In the period between the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 coming into force and 31 December 2018, there were 6 prosecutions and 0 convictions for female genital mutilation offences.
The media, however, reported on one conviction early in 2019, but that covers a period for which statistics will be published in May 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans the Cabinet Office has to improve gender balance on its board.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Cabinet Office Board is composed of Cabinet Office Ministers, senior officials and non-executives in line with the cross-government code of governance good practice and the Ministerial Code
The department has recently completed a round of non-executive recruitment, and diversity was taken into account as part of that process. Catherine Brown, Paul Kirby and Mark Price joined Amy Stirling (who chairs the Audit and Risk Subcommittee), Ian Davis and Sir Ian Cheshire as the Board's non-executive members. Of the current non-executives, 33% are female. This will rise to 40% when Ian Davis leaves the Board later in the year. Gender balance and diversity will also be taken into account in any future non-executive recruitment rounds
Her Majesty’s Government is also working to improve diversity at senior levels of the Civil Service. In September 2014 we published the Hay Group's 'Women in Whitehall: culture, leadership, talent' report which investigated the barriers faced by talented women developing their careers as Senior Civil Servants. Our response, the Talent Action Plan, introduced a series of new measures to ensure the Civil Service is among the most female-friendly employers in the country, and the most talented people succeed and reach the top positions, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or disability.