Sarah Champion – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of convictions for carrying out female genital mutilation.
Karen Bradley
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse.
The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced a number of measures to break down potential barriers to prosecution, including:
• a new mandatory reporting duty which requires specified professionals to report known cases of FGM in under 18s to the police; • extending extra-territorial jurisdiction over offences of FGM committed abroad; • providing lifelong anonymity for victims of FGM; • introducing FGM Protection Orders which can be used to protect girls at risk; and • creating a new offence of failing to protect a girl from the risk of FGM.
To help ensure the police have the guidance they need to tackle FGM effectively, in March 2015 the College of Policing published Authorised Professional Practice on FGM and this was updated in September 2015. In addition, lead FGM prosecutors have been appointed for each Crown Prosecution Service area and have agreed joint FGM investigation and prosecution protocols with their local police forces.
