Colleen Fletcher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Colleen Fletcher on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what account she has taken of the introduction of a dedicated specialist police line for professionals to report highly sensitive information about cases of known FGM under the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Karen Bradley

A mandatory reporting duty for regulated health and social care professionals and teachers will come into force at the end of October. We recently published guidance to support its introduction.

The guidance sets out that reports can be made using the 101 service. The Government has opted to recommend the use of an existing cost effective, simple and clear reporting route for professionals rather than introduce a dedicated specialist police line. Calls to 101 are answered by trained police officers and staff in the control room of the local police force. All 101 call handlers are fully trained to handle all calls received and specific call-handling instructions on FGM will be issued to them by the National Policing Lead before the duty comes into force. Upon receipt of a report, the police will record the information and initiate a multi-agency response in line with local safeguarding arrangements. Police forces have responsibilities regarding the management of information, including a statutory responsibility to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The College of Policing will also shortly update its Authorised Professional Practice Guidance on FGM with information and advice on the mandatory reporting duty.