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<p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to tackling and preventing the harmful
and unacceptable practice of female genital mutilation.</p><p> </p><p>The Female Genital
Mutilation Act 2003 extended significantly the protection that the law affords to
victims of this unacceptable practice. However, to deal with perpetrators of these
offences, cases must be reported to the police and the evidential and public interest
tests for prosecution must be met. At the time of mutilation, victims may be too young
and vulnerable, or too afraid, to report offences. They may also be reluctant to implicate
family members. These barriers to prosecution cannot easily be overcome. Therefore
it is important to find ways of building a case that do not necessarily rely on the
testimony of child victims.</p><p> </p><p>As part of cross-government work, the Ministry
of Justice is already considering suggestions made by the Director of Public Prosecutions
for strengthening the criminal law on female genital mutilation to make successful
prosecutions more likely.</p><p> </p><p>We welcome the Home Affairs Select Committee
inquiry into this area and will give careful consideration to any additional recommendations
for legislative change that may be made by the Committee when it reports in due course.</p><p>
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