Campaigners against female genital mutilation (FGM) have cautiously welcomed government moves to require professionals to report suspected cases of FGM, but warned of the risk of alienating communities and forcing the practice further underground.
On Friday the government launched a consultation into mandatory reporting of FGM that will ask which professionals should be forced to report, how it should be introduced and what punishment frontline professionals should face if they fail to report a case.
“Girls who are at risk have to be protected and it has been very challenging for police to launch investigations without information from the frontline,” said crime prevention minister Lynne Featherstone, the government lead on FGM. “Frontline professionals need clarity on this. If a boy came to a professional with half of his penis missing there would be no question about whether it should be reported.”
A new FGM unit will carry out a series of roadshows in areas where FGM is believed to be prevalent, including London, Manchester and Birmingham. It will also fund the charity Forward to train local safeguarding children’s boards, and work with police and border force agents to prosecute offenders, said Featherstone.
FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985, but only two prosecutions have been brought and there is yet to be a conviction.
Charities welcomed the moves, but some warned that heavy-handed mandatory reporting could further marginalise practising communities.
Naana Otoo-Oyortey, director of Forward, said there needed to be a national FGM strategy and said the government must listen to the fears of grassroots organisations around mandatory reporting. “We need mandatory reporting when a child is at risk, but if that means the reporting of any woman who has been through FGM then that is victimisation and could be very discriminatory,” she said.
The government also gave details on Friday of a £270,000 FGM funding pot for grassroots organisations, a sum that Otoo-Oyortey said revealed a lack of seriousness about community work. “Community engagement is seen as an add-on, an afterthought – but that is where we will really change things.”
Comfort Momoh, a midwife and founder of the African Well Women’s Clinic, said more awareness was needed before mandatory reporting was introduced. “It’s a case of the cart coming before the horse – you have to educate and raise awareness among professionals before you can hold them to account,” she said.
There is a risk that victims of FGM will be less likely to engage with health professionals, said Sarah McCulloch, director of charity ACCM UK. “Many in the communities we work with say they are not going to use services because they do not want to get themselves or their parents into trouble – they are very fearful of being arrested,” she said. “Yes, if a child is at risk it needs to be reported, but let’s help victims first.”
Featherstone said the consultation would enable possible “perverse” consequences of mandatory reporting to be addressed. “We don’t want to stop women coming forward, but we do need to increase the amount of information coming through to police to increase the number of investigations. Mandatory reporting is part of a range of measures – we can’t leave it out of the equation but we need all the other components to work effectively too.”
