My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to debate this important issue. I offer my personal and my party's congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Rendell, on her sponsorship of the Bill. I should also like to put on the record my appreciation of the important work on this issue that has been carried out over several years by the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton. As she mentioned, in earlier debates she tabled amendments to the Extradition Bill, together with my noble friend Lord Hodgson and myself—but she was very much the leading light—which gave us the opportunity to debate these issues. It should be noted that in that debate not a single voice was raised in Opposition to the objectives of this Bill. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, I should also like to put on the record my thanks for the thoughtful way in which the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, responded to the amendments on behalf of the Government.

Like others who have spoken today, I recognise the sensitivity of the issue, given that we are talking about some deeply held, traditional cultural practices which affect some of the most vulnerable groups in society. We are all in agreement that FGM is a serious problem demanding an effective multi-agency response.

All forms of FGM are mutilating and carry serious health risks. However, the immediate and long-term health consequences of FGM vary according to the type and severity of the procedure performed. Immediate and short-term health implications, as we have heard, include severe pain and shock, tetanus and other infections, extensive damage to the external reproductive system, vaginal and pelvic infections, and even immediate fatal haemorrhaging. Last but not least, as we have heard, there can be lasting psychological damage.

We have also heard how FGM can cause complications later on in life in pregnancy and childbirth, including an increased risk of stillbirth or haemorrhaging from internal tearing. It doubles the risk of the mother's death in childbirth and increases by three or four times the risk of the child being stillborn.

The roots of FGM are indeed complex and numerous. Indeed, it has not even been possible to determine when or where the tradition originated. However, I agree with earlier speakers that it is definitely not, as is sometimes stated, an Islamic issue. The practice of FGM crosses religious, ethnic and cultural lines. In cultures where it is an accepted norm, it is practised by followers of all religious beliefs, as well as by animists and non-believers.

As we have heard, FGM is carried out for sociological reasons, such as initiating girls into womanhood in their society, and sometimes for misguided religious reasons. It is carried out for dangerously misunderstood hygiene and aesthetic reasons; to lower female sexual desire; to maintain chastity and virginity before marriage; and allegedly to increase male sexual pleasure. Ironically, it may also be believed by some, we are told, to enhance fertility and chances of child survival, which is the exact opposite of what is really the case. What is clear is that those varied reasons stem from traditional power inequalities and ensuring the compliance of women to the dictates of their communities.

But above all else, as noble Lords have made clear, this is an issue about children. FGM, with its serious and sometimes devastating consequences, is carried out on children from when they are only a few days old into adolescence. We have heard moving stories today from the noble Baroness, Lady Gibson of Market Rasen.

Let us not doubt that FGM is child abuse. As such, it requires carefully planned and sensitive interventions into the family situation. Health practitioners and the organisation Forward, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Gould, referred, do valuable work in campaigning against this practice among African communities in Britain. However, they believe that FGM is still a significant and growing problem within the United Kingdom and that we will fail to tackle it unless we ensure that our agencies are equipped to deal with the problem here in our own backyard.

Mention has been made of the fact that in 1985 Parliament legislated to outlaw FGM, although it was referred to as female circumcision at that time. I am pleased that my noble friend Lady Trumpington spoke in the gap today to remind us of the fact that great support was given to that Bill by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, and that it was supported by the then Conservative government, just as I am delighted to see that this Bill is supported by the present Labour Government.

The question we have to ask—it has been posed today—is whether the Bill will increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions for FGM in Britain. It is a mark of sorrow for all of us that no prosecution has been brought, although we know that FGM has occurred.

We have to recognise that there are already great difficulties in communicating the law to immigrant communities, and there are further difficulties in taking action to protect girls from this practice. An increase in the maximum penalty could be academic if knowledge of the offence is poor and prosecution remains impossible.

I agree wholeheartedly with the noble Baronesses, Lady Rendell and Lady Gibson of Market Rasen, that the Bill must be accompanied by work with communities to explain the law and address their knowledge and beliefs. When we strengthen provisions against people who carry out FGM, we must also ensure that community-based local strategies provide education and support. Several grass-roots community organisations and interest groups such as Forward are best placed to deliver those strategies. I invite the Minister to pledge her support for those organisations and to reaffirm the need to address underlying cultural attitudes if the law is to have a role in promoting change.

The Bill also seeks to address the issue of UK-based families organising to send girls abroad so that FGM can be performed on them. Under the Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998, it is an offence for parents to take their daughters abroad to have them mutilated if FGM is also an offence in the country to which they are travelling. However, sadly, the Act is of no use where FGM is not illegal in the destination country. We need to remember that.

The measures we are debating are vital in that they introduce a new offence of assisting a non-UK person to mutilate a girl's genitalia overseas. The noble Baroness, Lady Gibson, referred graphically to a situation in which a family resident in the UK finds that a girl has been mutilated overseas. That case, sadly, would still fall outwith the Bill because the parents did not arrange for the girl to go overseas with that objective. However, the Bill will stop persons who are resident here being able with impunity to send a child overseas to have FGM performed, as they will face a penalty.

It has, I hope, been clear from my speech that I welcome the Bill as a whole. It is a valuable opportunity to improve the protection of girls and women in the United Kingdom from FGM. It is a welcome reflection of the importance of this issue and the seriousness with which it deserves to be treated. I hope that it may be helpful to the noble Baroness, Lady Rendell, if I make it clear that I have no intention of tabling any amendments to the Bill. I wish it the speediest of journeys on to the statute book.