Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls. On 22 July, the Government marked the first anniversary of the Girl Summit – the first global summit to mobilise domestic and international efforts to end FGM and child and forced marriage within a generation. All of the commitments made at the Summit have now been delivered, with Home Office commitments including:

• a new mandatory reporting duty, provided for in the Serious Crime Act 2015 and due to commence in October this year, which will require specified professionals to report ‘known’ cases of FGM to the police;

• the launch of the Home Office’s FGM Unit, which provides outreach support to local areas and works with the police, voluntary and community sector, survivors and professionals to develop policies and practices to end FGM;

• providing resources for frontline professionals, including: a resource pack, e-learning, and distributing over 440,000 communication materials; and

• the launch of a force level inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary on the police response to ‘honour’ based violence, including FGM, to help ensure the enforcement is as good as it can be. Ministers signed a cross-Government declaration outlining this progress and reaffirming this Government’s commitment to tackling this appalling crime.