My Lords, I am pleased to support the Bill. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Rendell of Babergh on piloting it through the House.

I decided to speak in the debate because I can still remember my reaction to learning about female genital mutilation over 30 years ago. At that time, I worked in the equality department at the TUC. It was one of my jobs, as a new assistant, to open the post and pass on the most important letters to the head of department. One morning, I opened an envelope to see a circular that had obviously been typed on an old-fashioned typewriter and had been badly reproduced. My first instinct was to put it on one side. As I glanced at it, the words "female genital mutilation" caught my eye, and I read it.

I could not believe what I read. I could not believe that such mutilations took place. I was shaken to the core to learn not only that they took place but that female relatives of those who were mutilated took part in the proceedings. Such was my naivety at that time. My head of department told me that she had first learnt about the practice at international conferences of women. She told me that it was often difficult to discuss the issue because many women from the countries in which it was practised defended it as being part of their culture and nothing to do with other nations and other cultures.

Since that time, I have discussed the issue on many occasions. One occasion sticks in my mind. I met a young African woman at a women's international conference in Geneva. She was a professional woman in her late 20s, and she told me of her personal experiences. She had been born and brought up in a village in which female genital mutilation was the norm for the girls and women living there. She remembered vividly the agony and the bewilderment that she had felt during and after the mutilation. Her bewilderment came about because her mother and her aunt assisted in the excruciating process. She had many health problems throughout her teens because of the mutilation.

In her early 20s, she became a teacher, moved to a town and met and married a teacher from the first school in which she taught. They had two daughters and were determined that no form of female genital mutilation would be performed on them. When the girls were six and eight, they went to stay with their maternal grandmother during the school holidays. After a few days, the parents went to bring them home. They found two little girls with faces swollen from crying. The grandmother, with others, had performed the mutilation on the children, despite being fully aware of the parents' wishes. The young woman told me that she could not forgive her mother for what she had done, although she recognised that her mother genuinely believed that it was necessary for the girls because, otherwise, their prospects of marriage would be nil.

I tell your Lordships that story to illustrate how female genital mutilation is perpetrated in some communities and because many women and girls from the same community as the young African woman to whom I spoke now live permanently in this country.

I know that we already have Laws to cover these practices, but they obviously need strengthening. This Bill does that. As my noble friend said, the Bill alone will not be sufficient. It must be accompanied by education and explanation of why it is necessary, especially aimed at the immigrant communities who practise the mutilations. The Minister in the other place said:

"Educating them about the dangers and unacceptability of such a brutal practice is the best way to break the cycle of mutilation . . . Between Royal Assent and the legislation's being brought into force, health professionals and others will work with those communities that practise FGM in order that they become aware of its provisions".—[Official Report, Commons, 11/7/03; col. 1563.]

I believe that that is the way forward. I support and welcome the Bill.