Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 10
7th Report - Female genital mutilation
Published 12 Sep 2025
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Female genital mutilation (FGM) All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
FGM training should be made mandatory for midwives and other healthcare professionals working in services where they are likely to encounter FGM survivors. That training should include how to treat survivors with appropriate sensitivity. Staff working in FGM Specialist Clinics and Women’s Health Hubs should be able to signpost survivors to non-health related local services where necessary such as those that can offer support relating to gender-based violence, insecure housing, and language barriers. (Recommendation, Paragraph 34)
From: Women and Equalities Committee, 7th Report - Female genital mutilation (HC 714), 12 September 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 2 December 2025 (deadline 12 November 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government sets out existing and planned measures on FGM across health, policing, education, data and prosecution, while declining to comment on Home Office funding beyond March 2026 and stating that there are "currently no plans for future funding" for its flagship FCDO FGM programme after October 2026.
- On training, it says all healthcare staff must complete safeguarding training with a focus on FGM, and that an NHS e-learning FGM module is "currently being refreshed for publication in 2026".
- On reconstructive surgery research, it says "We agree this is an important area of research". The Department of Health and Social Care "aims to advertise a timeline" for a NIHR call by the end of this year.
- On funding, the Home Office says it "is currently unable to comment on spending beyond March 2026". The FCDO says its flagship programme concludes in October 2026, with "currently no plans for future funding".
- On prosecutions, the Home Office and Attorney General's Office "will" jointly convene a Ministerial roundtable with relevant departments, with prevention and prosecution "at the centre".