| Female Genital Mutilation Bill 2003 | Explanatory Notes |
Female Genital Mutilation Bill
These notes refer to the Female
Genital Mutilation Bill as introduced in the House of Commons on 11th December
2002 [Bill 21]
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION BILL
EXPLANATORY NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. These explanatory notes
relate to the Female Genital Mutilation Bill as introduced in the House of Commons
on 11 December 2002. They have been prepared by the Home Office, with the consent
of Ann Clwyd, the member in charge of the Bill, in order to assist the reader
of the Bill and to help inform debate on it. They do not form part of the Bill
and have not been endorsed by Parliament.
2. The notes need to be read in conjunction with the Bill. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Bill. So where a clause or part of a clause does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.
BACKGROUND
3. Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves procedures which include the
partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for cultural or
other non-therapeutic reasons. The practice is medically unnecessary, extremely
painful and has serious health consequences, both at the time when the mutilation
is carried out, and in later life.
4. FGM is a
criminal offence in the UK under the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.
5. The Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Bill repeals and re-enacts the provisions
of the 1985 Act and gives them extra-territorial effect as was recommended by
an All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health
reporting in 2000. It also increases the maximum penalty, on conviction on indictment,
for FGM from 5 to 14 years' imprisonment. The Bill does not extend to Scotland.
[Bill
21-EN] 53/2
COMMENTARY ON CLAUSES
Clause 1: Offence of female genital
mutilation
6. Clause 1 makes it an offence for a person to perform an FGM
operation on a girl (subsection (1)). Subsection (2) provides a saving for necessary
surgical operations and operations carried out in connection with childbirth.
However, the saving applies only if the operation is carried out: in the UK by
a registered medical practitioner or registered midwife or a person training to
be one (subsection (3)); or outside the UK by overseas equivalents of such persons
(subsection (4)). Operations necessary for physical health are likely to be rare
but could, for example, include the removal of relevant cancerous areas. Operations
necessary for mental health could include, for example, cosmetic surgery resulting
from the distress caused by a perception of abnormality or gender reassignment
surgery. However, subsection (5) provides that in assessing a girl's mental health
no account is taken of any belief that the operation is needed as a matter of
custom or ritual. So an FGM operation could not legally occur on the ground that
a girl's mental health would suffer if she did not conform with the prevailing
custom of her community.
7. There is no fixed procedure for determining whether a person carrying out an FGM operation outside the UK is an overseas equivalent of a medical practitioner etc for the purpose of subsection (4). If a prosecution is brought, this will be a matter for the courts (in the UK) to determine on the facts of the case.
Clause
2: Offence of assisting a girl to mutilate her own genitalia
8. It is not
an offence for a girl to carry out an FGM operation on herself but clause 2 makes
it an offence for another person to help her to do so.
Clause
3: Offence of assisting a non-UK person to mutilate overseas a girl's genitalia
9. This clause makes it an offence for a person in the UK to aid, abet, counsel
or procure the performance outside the UK of a relevant FGM operation (as defined
by subsection(2)) that is carried out by a person who is not a UK national or
permanent UK resident (as defined by clause 6). By virtue of subsection (2), this
offence only applies where the victim of the FGM operation is a UK national or
permanent UK resident. So the person who, for example, arranges by telephone from
his home in England for his UK national daughter to have an FGM operation carried
out abroad by a foreign national (who does not live permanently in the UK) commits
an offence.
10. Subsection (3) provides that
the saving that applies for the purposes of clause 1 also applies to this clause.
Clause 4: Extension of sections 1 to 3 to extra-territorial acts
11.
Clause 4 extends clauses 1, 2 and 3 so that any of the prohibited acts done outside
the UK by a UK national or permanent UK resident will be an offence under domestic
law and triable in the courts of England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
12. The effect of the extension of clause 1 is that it will be an offence for a UK national or permanent UK resident to carry out an FGM operation outside the UK. By virtue of section 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, it will also be an offence for a person in the UK (or a UK national or permanent UK resident outside the UK) to aid, abet etc a UK national or permanent UK resident to carry out an FGM operation outside the UK. For example, if a person in the UK advises his UK national brother over the telephone how to carry out an FGM operation abroad, he would commit an offence.
13. The effect of the extension of clause 2 is that it will be an offence for a UK national or permanent UK resident outside the UK to aid, abet etc a person of any nationality to carry out an FGM operation on herself wherever it is carried out.
14. The effect of the extension of clause 3 is that it will be an offence for a UK national or permanent UK resident outside the UK to aid, abet etc a foreign national (who is not a permanent UK resident) to carry out an FGM operation outside the UK on a UK national or permanent UK resident. For example, a permanent UK resident who takes his permanent UK resident daughter to the doctor's surgery in another country so that an FGM operation can be carried out will commit an offence.
Clause
5: Penalties for offences
15. The penalties for the new offences will be
the same, on summary conviction, as those that currently apply under the 1985
Act. However, the maximum penalty, on conviction on indictment, is increased from
5 to 14 years' imprisonment (paragraph (a)).
Clause
6: Definitions
16. Clauses 1 to 3 above refer to a girl because it seems
likely that most victims will be girls but subsection (1) of clause 6 ensures
that women are also covered. Subsection (2) defines a UK national and subsection
(3) a permanent UK resident for the purposes of the Bill.
Clause
7: Consequential provision
17. This clause makes consequential provision,
including repealing the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985.
Clause
8: Short title, commencement, extent and general saving
18. Clause 8 establishes
a power for the Secretary of State to make a statutory instrument setting out
when the Act will come into force. Subsection (3) allows for the order to contain
transitional or saving provisions. The Act does not extend to Scotland. The effect
of subsection (5) is to preserve the effect of, for example, section 8 of the
Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 (see paragraph 12 above).
FINANCIAL
EFFECTS AND EFFECTS ON PUBLIC SERVICE MANPOWER
19. The financial effects
of the Bill and the effects on public service and manpower will be minimal.
SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY APPRAISAL
20. The Regulatory Impact Unit of the
Cabinet Office is content that no regulatory impact assessment is required.
EUROPEAN CONVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
21. Section 19 of the Human Rights Act
1998 does not apply to Private Members Bills but in the Government's view the
Bill is compatible with the Convention rights.
COMMENCEMENT
22. The provisions of the Bill will come into force on a day that the Secretary
of State will specify by order.