Repeated failure to report female genital mutilation should be a criminal offence, MPs say

An influential committee of MPs has called for harsher penalties, beyond the existing professional disciplinary sanctions, against health professionals who do not report cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) to police.1

In its latest report on FGM, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee repeated its predecessor committee’s call in a 2014 report to make intentional or repeated failures to report such abuse a criminal offence.2

Although …