More than 22,000 FGM survivors have been identified by UK public health providers since 2015 – though newly-recorded cases are declining – a special report by The Ferret, an independent news website in Scotland, has found.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), which involves cutting or removing female genitalia for non-medical reasons, is a high-profile international issue and has has been described by the UN as a form of gender-based violence.
But comprehensive data on these practices is hard to find amidst inconsistent record-keeping and low reporting rates. In the UK, most of the cases identified in the data we found are from the National Health Service England.
