Lord Blencathra – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2014-03-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will instruct the Crown Prosecution Service to bring prosecutions relating to all cases of female genital mutilation reported in London since 2009.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is committed to tackling cases of female genital mutilation (FGM), however it can only prosecute cases referred to it by the police which meet both of the tests outlined in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

The Code sets out a two stage test which must be applied when deciding whether a case should be prosecuted. The first stage is the evidential test which requires prosecutors to be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction. If the evidential stage of the test is met prosecutors must then go on to identify the relevant public interest factors tending for and against the prosecution in order to form an overall assessment of whether a prosecution is in the public interest.