Clause 1 - Offence of female genital mutilation
Female Genital Mutilation Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley, Labour)
It is a long time since I served on a Committee under your chairmanship, Mr. Gale, and it is a pleasure to do so once more. I thank everyone who assisted me in securing an early sitting of the Committee, and I hope that the Bill will proceed rapidly through the House.
Clause 1 re-enacts and extends the provisions of the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985, which by virtue of clause 7 ceases to have effect. Repealing and re-enacting the 1985 Act allows the short title of the Bill to describe more accurately the prohibited acts and removes any suggestion of acceptability that the term ''circumcision'' might imply.
Subsection (1) re-enacts section 1(1)(a) of the 1985 Act, which describes the prohibited acts. Subsections (2) and (3) re-enact, in simpler terms, section 2(1)(a) and (b) of the 1985 Act, which provides an exemption for necessary surgical operations and operations carried out in connection with childbirth in the United Kingdom by a registered medical practitioner, a registered midwife or a person training to be one.
The purpose of subsection (4) is to extend the exception that applies to legitimate surgical operations carried out in the United Kingdom to such operations carried out outside the UK, because it would not be right to criminalise outside the United Kingdom operations that are not criminal in this country. However, extending the application of the exception so that it applies to operations carried out abroad by a ''registered medical practitioner'' or ''registered midwife'' is problematic because not all foreign countries have a registration system.
It would be impossible to draw up a list of all the foreign qualifications that we would want to recognise for these purposes, and the profession and status of midwife is unique to this country. Subsection (4) therefore applies broadly to the overseas equivalents of such persons and, in the event of a prosecution, it will be for the UK courts to determine whether a person carrying out an operation overseas was qualified to do so.
Subsection (5) re-enacts section 2(2) of the 1985 Act, which provides that for the purpose of
determining whether an operation is necessary for the mental health of a person, no account should be taken of any belief that the operation is needed as a matter of custom or ritual.