Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in response to the recommendation in the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children report You feel like you’re nothing, published in 2006, that the Government work with religious communities to defer ritual circumcision until informed consent can be obtained from the individual.

The Department is in the process of providing a response to the Mohamed Abdisamad: Prevention of Future Deaths report. The Department will respond by the extended deadline and meet with external groups if necessary.

No assessment has been made regarding doctors who have been struck off the medical register for dangerous circumcisions, nor the case of Zuber Bux. No safeguarding assessment has been made regarding the rite of metzitzah b’peh.

The Children’s Rights Alliance and National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children report, You feel like you’re nothing, was published in 2006 under a previous administration and there are no current plans to implement the recommendation highlighted regarding working with religious communities to defer ritual male circumcision so that the informed consent of the child can be sought.

The Government would encourage anyone seeking non-therapeutic male circumcision (NMTC) services for themselves, or for someone else, to use the services of a regulated healthcare professional. If an NMTC procedure is carried out by a regulated healthcare professional, they are subject to regulatory oversight by the relevant regulators such as the General Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Even if a healthcare professional is acting in a religious or spiritual role, they cannot ‘opt out’ of their core duties and responsibilities and therefore any registered healthcare professional wishing to carry out NTMC must be registered with the Care Quality Commission to carry out the regulated activity of surgical procedures.