Female Genital Mutilation

Lord Smith of Hindhead Excerpts

Thursday 9th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Hindhead (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton, for raising this important matter as a Question for Short Debate. I appreciate that FGM has been the subject of previous Oral Questions but this debate provides an opportunity for further consideration to be given to a matter that, for the vast majority, appears so barbaric that we cannot understand how or why it can continue to be practised. As he pointed out, it is estimated that 137,000 women and girls are living with FGM in the UK. The report Prevalence of FGM in England and Wales: National and Local Estimates confirmed in 2015 that every local authority in the UK has FGM occurring within its jurisdiction. In London, it is estimated that 2.5% of the female population has been subjected to FGM.

FGM has been illegal now in the UK for 31 years and in all that time there has not been a single prosecution—not one—with a parent, guardian, aunt or cutter being brought to justice. In 2014, almost 16,500 parents in England were prosecuted for failing to ensure that their children were sent to school, which is about 45 prosecutions a day in one year alone. I wonder what a young British woman who has been subject to FGM, possibly when she was much younger, would think about that statistic since clearly we care passionately about the welfare of our children. Equally clearly, there is something here that we are still not completely getting right in respect of dealing with and, importantly, preventing this offence.

We understand that due to the secretive world in which FGM exists, the victims are vulnerable and the perpetrators manipulative. It involves pressures from mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and so-called leaders of communities that are often closed and therefore difficult to investigate. The main problem of course is that the perpetrators of this crime are usually the victim’s parents—the very people with the first duty to protect the child from harm.

Despite these rather depressing statistics, there has been success in raising awareness through national guidelines for front-line workers, the introduction of the duty to report cases of suspected FGM and the introduction of lifelong anonymity for victims, together with the criminal offence of failing to protect a girl at risk of FGM. There have also been national campaigns such as Not in Religion’s Name and Not in my Name, and the Girl Summit in 2014, to name some of the positive work in this area. Yet according to the statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, a case of FGM is reported in the UK every 109 minutes. Based on that estimate, one report will have occurred in the space of this debate. If we are going to be successful in stopping this practice, we have to break the cycle. For every woman we are able to protect, there is a better chance of breaking the link so that this is not inflicted on the next generation.

Will my noble and learned friend update the House as to how the measures of the Serious Crime Act 2015 aimed at strengthening the law on FGM are affecting the landscape? Specifically, how many FGM protection orders have been issued since their introduction, and does he know whether they have been successful in protecting the children involved? The lack of police referrals is often cited in reports, such as that of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, as a serious contributing factor to the lack of prosecutions. Can my noble and learned friend tell the House whether police referral numbers have increased since the introduction of the mandatory reporting duty last October?

Can my noble and learned friend also give some thought to including the equally barbaric and dangerous act of breast ironing into the Serious Crime Act? Again, this is child abuse, violating the most intimate areas of young girls under the thinly veiled disguise of being a religious and cultural practice. Does he also agree with me that breast ironing should be included in the ongoing work on raising awareness and educating girls about the dangers of FGM?

We know France has had some success in securing prosecutions for FGM. Up to 2014, it had had 43 prosecutions, resulting in the punishment of more than 100 parents and cutters. French prosecution success has been partly due to regular medical examinations of girls from an early age—although it is not mandatory, receipt of social security is dependent on participation. The Minister in another place has made her feelings clear about the introduction of these sorts of early examinations and does not feel it would be appropriate—nor does the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. I of course accept their view, and understand that different levels of evidence are required for prosecutions in France, but can my noble and learned friend say whether any discussions have taken place between UK officials and their counterparts in France and other countries which have secured successful prosecutions, to see whether there is anything else we can learn from their processes?

I end by congratulating my noble and learned friend and his department on the work that has been done so far in recognising the incidents of FGM that are practised in the name of religion and tradition but which are nothing short of abuse of young British girls and women. I look forward to his thoughts in summing up.