Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to prevent female genital mutilation.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and is child abuse that requires domestic and international action. Recent work to prevent it includes:

• Changes to the law via the Serious Crime Act 2015, including extended extra-territorial jurisdiction over FGM offences committed overseas, a new failure to protect offence, and the creation of a mandatory reporting duty for known cases in under 18s;
• the introduction of FGM Protection Orders in July 2015 – the most recent figures show 94 orders have been made;
• the launch of the Home Office’s FGM Unit which carries out awareness raising and outreach work with professionals and communities; and
• the Department for International Development’s £35m programme to support the Africa-led movement to end FGM overseas.