My Lords, I must first declare an interest as the president of FORWARD, one of the organisations to which my noble friend Lady Rendell referred, which works in the field. Secondly, I should like to thank her for promoting the Bill in the House and for the way in which she has presented it today. I should also like to thank the Government for their support for the Bill.

I have one regret, which is that all the speakers in this debate are women. It is important that men take part in this issue. When I introduced a debate in your Lordships' House in November 1998, I was extremely gratified that half of the speakers were men. It is a pity that that is not the case today. Nevertheless, I know that we have their support in what we are trying to do.

When I introduced the Bill in November 1998, it was an attempt to see how far we had gone to implement the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985—an Act which was passed due to the persistence of some Members of your Lordships' House.

I was prompted to revisit the subject after listening to Waris Dirie, a UN special ambassador on the subject, at a meeting organised by the All-Party Group for Population, Development and Reproductive Health. Waris is a model born in Somalia. She described how she was subject to the ordeal at the age of five and promised in marriage to a man aged 60 and how she then fled the village at the age of 14 and sought refuge in Britain. She said of the campaign to outlaw all female genital mutilation:

"I have seen girls suffer and die from FGM. I was strong enough to survive and I want to make the difference. I can talk because I have experienced the pain".

The Bill is a step in her campaign to bring to justice those who help to perform such terrible acts.

Credit must also be given to the all-party group for, as my noble friend said, holding a series of hearings on the subject after listening to Waris Dirie. I was also a member of the panel on those hearings. Its crucial recommendation was that the title of any new Act should refer to female genital mutilation, not to female circumcision. My noble friend was right in saying that it was a very important change, because the reality is mutilation. It in no way compares to male circumcision; nor, as suggested by Germaine Greer, is it a form of cosmetic surgery.

Clause 1 provides a definition of FGM, but the details given by my noble friend express more clearly the reality and show how grim the act is. Although the health consequences vary depending on the procedure used, they are usually serious. They range from damage to the external reproductive system to psychological scars. The practice can leave a lasting mark on the life and mind of the girl who has undergone such a trauma. Such psychological complications may be submerged deep in a child's subconscious and can cause behavioural problems. Girls hold on to their secret, feeling guilty and isolated, and grow up suffering from a feeling of incompleteness, anxiety and depression. It is important for those girls that the public debate continues and that it takes place out of the shadows.

What are the justifications for carrying out the barbaric practice of unnecessary painful mutilation of the body, euphemistically known as "cutting the rose"? It is believed to ensure virginity until marriage, to maintain family honour and to ensure a sense of belonging to the group that the girl comes from. It is a control of women's sexuality, keeping them subordinate to men. Women are made to believe that it will increase their husband's enjoyment of the sexual act, irrespective of the fact that it is extremely painful.

My noble friend referred to the 130 million girls at risk of undergoing the practice in some form. Most girls and women affected live in Africa, but, as she said, FGM is increasingly practised in western Europe. With the movement of people to Europe from countries where the practice is endemic, the practice comes with them. It is a cultural practice that people may hold on to as a perceived important part of their identity once they leave the country. We must consider that very seriously when we negotiate with communities and discuss the dangers of the practice that they are undertaking.

As my noble friend also said, the exact number of refugees and immigrants from practising countries and in communities in the UK is not known. Based on figures extrapolated from the 1999 Labour Force Survey, FORWARD estimates that around 6,500 girls under the age of 16 are at risk from FGM. One of the causes has been the ability to take girls out of the country. It is therefore encouraging that the Bill agrees fundamentally with the recommendation of the all-party group when it said:

"UK residents who take girls abroad for FGM can be prosecuted under the UK law on their return, regardless of the legal status of FGM in the country where the mutilation took place".

That is of crucial importance.

Equally, it was necessary to know whether the extradition legislation currently going through the House would apply. For that reason, during the passage of the Extradition Bill, the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, who will speak later, and I took the opportunity to get clarification from the Government of their attitude to the extradition of persons who have committed offences under the Bill. We felt it was important that there be extradition to the UK after conviction if a sentence had been imposed for a crime in the UK under the Act.

The Amendment that we tabled identified FGM as a specific offence which should be classified as conduct that constitutes an extraditable offence if it occurs in the UK. Furthermore, it identified that if the offence of FGM occurred outside the country, it would still amount to an extraditable offence. The important question was asked as to whether the powers available under the Extradition Bill would be used in practice. We were quite encouraged by the Minister's response. He said:

"We hope that the police will pursue such matters vigorously. As with any extradition case, there can be no guarantee that the request will be successful. However, that is not a reason not to have the power in statute to allow us to pursue it. The penalties that FGM already attracts mean that it is always extraditable".—[Official Report, 10/7/03; GC 138.]

That was encouraging and very good news indeed, partly because of the point made by my noble friend about there having been no prosecutions in this country under the 1985 Act. Legal action against FGM is also possible under the Children's Act 1980, so the courts could, if they wished, prevent the removal of a child from the UK for the purposes of carrying out the mutilation abroad. I appreciate that one cause of inaction was the difficulty of getting evidence, but the other cause was the loophole in the previous Bill.

FGM is a fundamental human rights issue with adverse health and social implications. It violates the rights of women and girls to bodily integrity. It is vital for those at risk that the new law is fully implemented and that the Government, the police and the agencies involved work together to ensure that that happens and that this abhorrent practice is eliminated.