Acute hospitals in England will have to report cases of female genital mutilation from September

All NHS acute hospitals in England will be obliged to report to the Department of Health monthly from September 2014 on patients who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) or have a family history of it.

The move is part of a government initiative to tackle a practice that is thought to be widespread among immigrants and refugees who have come to the United Kingdom from parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Ministers from the Home Office and the Department for International Development have signed a declaration pledging to tackle FGM. Measures include funding to raise awareness in UK communities where the custom is prevalent and a global campaign by a consortium of leading anti-FGM activists.

The practice has been illegal in the UK since 1985, and 2003 legislation (2005 in Scotland) made it an offence to take someone abroad for FGM. But there have been no prosecutions yet in the UK.

From April hospitals will have to keep a record of patients who have had FGM, have a family history of it, or have undergone deinfibulation. From September the data will have to be reported to the Department of Health to help build up a picture of the incidence and prevalence of FGM.

Freedom of Information Act requests to seven London hospital trusts with specialist services for FGM victims found that they treated more than 2000 such patients from 2010 to the summer of 2013.

The police said that reluctance among doctors, other health professionals, and teachers to tip them off was hampering their efforts to crack down on the practice. Jason Ashwood, head of the Metropolitan Police FGM team, told the Times newspaper, “I can hardly think of an example of a doctor calling up to say ‘I have someone [with FGM] with me . . . please can you send an officer.’ That just does not happen.”

Guidance from the General Medical Council in 2012 made it clear that every doctor has a duty to report any concerns that a child may be at risk of abuse—which would include the risk of undergoing FGM.

Only two doctors so far have been removed from the medical register for misconduct relating to FGM. One was struck off in 1993 for performing FGM while knowing it was illegal, but the police decided not to prosecute. Another doctor was erased from the register in 2000 for offering to carry out FGM.

A case is ongoing against another doctor, Sureshkumar Pandya, for allegedly carrying out a labia reduction operation.