FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

Early day motion 84, tabled 15 November 2006 by Baroness Burt of Solihull (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 91 members.

That this House notes with grave concern that 279,500 women in the United Kingdom have been subjected to female genital mutilation and that every year a further 6,500 girls in the United Kingdom are at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation despite the practice having been made illegal in 1985; further notes that many young women are being taken back to their family's country of origin in order to have female genital mutilation performed on them, despite this having been made illegal as a result of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003; is disturbed by recent reports that families are clubbing together to fly people from Africa into the United Kingdom to perform female genital mutilation on their daughters; applauds the Metropolitan Police Force's specialist unit on female genital mutilation which has engaged in over 20 successful interventions; congratulates Esther Fornah on finally winning her appeal, following the House of Lords' judgement, to be granted asylum on the grounds that she would be subjected to female genital mutilation if she returned to Sierra Leone; is disquieted by the fact that no prosecutions have resulted from the two pieces of legislation that have made female genital mutilation a crime; calls for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to implement the precedent set in the case of Esther Fornah more rigorously; and calls for police to be granted the power to investigate and for prosecutions to be made in suspected cases of female genital mutilation without the need for victims to make a formal complaint.

Signatures by party: Labour 42, Liberal Democrat 31, Conservative 12, DUP 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Scottish National Party 1, UUP 1.