Reported Cases of Female Genital Mutilation March 2020 to Present
Keywords
Cases, Reported, Female, Genital, Mutilation, FGM, Age, Victim, Type, Assault, Injury, Excise, Infibulate, Aid, Abet, Counsel.
Publication Number
PUB 1421
FOI Reference Number
16752
Request Title
Reported Cases of Female Genital Mutilation March 2020 to Present
Date Range
01 January 2020 to 31 December 2021
Information Requested
Please can you supply me data on how many cases of FGM were reported to your police force each month between March 2020 and today's date? Ideally, I'd like this data stratified, by age of alleged victim please and if you have the data by type.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
03 March 2022
Date of Disclosure
11 March 2022
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16752 Response
Initial Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 03 March 2022.
Date Range: 01 January 2020 to 31 December 2021.
The data is based on a search of Home Office Classification Codes 008/52 and 008/68 and includes crime and non crime data.
As other agencies are also involved in dealing with this offence (such as the National Crime Agency), not all reports are not necessarily recorded by Essex Police, therefore, you may wish to note this when examining the figures provided.
Please can you supply me data on how many cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) were reported to your Police force each month between March 2020 and today's date?
|
Year |
Quarter |
Age Group |
Home Office Classification |
Short Title |
Full Offence Title |
|
2020 |
3 |
6-10 |
008/52 |
Female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
Assault with Injury - female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
|
2021 |
2 |
Not Recorded |
008/52 |
Female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
Assault with Injury - female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
|
3 |
16-20 |
008/52 |
Female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
Assault with Injury - female genital mutilation - Excise, infibulate, aid, abet, counsel |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The Force Information Management Board chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.
No further information will be provided by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 23(1) Information supplied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies
Section 31(1)(a)(b) Law Enforcement
Section 40(2) Personal Information
Section 44(1) Information covered by prohibitions on disclosure such as sexual offences (amendment action 1992) which provides anonymity to victims of sexual offences
Evidence of Harm
As you will be aware, any release under the FOIA is a disclosure to the world, not just to the individual making the request. Whilst not questioning the motives of the applicant, there are concerns with regards to disclosing the month of the FGM offence and exact age of the victim as this may allow an individual to be identified. Victims of such crimes are extremely vulnerable. In addition, disclosure may also lead to community tension or unrest, as victims of this type of crime are often known to or related to the offender, which at times is a family member.
The Police Service is charged with enforcing the law, preventing and detecting crime and protecting the communities we serve. Disclosure of the requested information would be invaluable to those with criminal intent, as this would allow offenders to be in a position to determine whether or not Essex Police are aware of their offending behaviour and allow them the opportunity to use this knowledge to their own advantage in furthering criminal activity around the force. If those with criminal intent were to use the information to their own advantage it would significantly impact on the core law enforcement function which is the prevention and detection of crime as well as significantly increasing the risk of harm to individuals.
Public Interest Considerations
Section 31 Law Enforcement
Factors Favouring Disclosure
Factors favouring disclosure of this information would lead to a better informed public which may lead to more information from the public demonstrating that Essex Police appropriately investigates FGM. It may encourage individuals to provide intelligence in order to assist investigations and reduce crime. There is a public interest in the community being made aware of all the facts relating to this area of policing in order to ensure complete openness and transparency.
Factors Against Non-Disclosure
Factors favouring non-disclosure would be that it would compromise law enforcement tactics and more crime could be committed. Also, the public have a high expectation that any information/intelligence provided to the Police will be treated with confidence and anything that places that confidence at risk would undermine the trust that individuals have in the Police. In turn, this could potentially undermine Essex Police’s ability to prevent and detect crime, which would have an adverse effect on the safety of the communities it serves.
Section 40 Personal Information
Providing any further breakdown in relation to the month and exact age may allow individuals to be identified. We have, therefore, provided the quarter and age group.
Balancing Test
After considering the advantages and disadvantages in disclosure it falls upon Essex Police to conduct a balance test on the issues. The strongest arguments for release, which is better awareness which may reduce crime or lead to more information from the public, needs to be weighed against the strongest argument for non-release, which in this case is effective law enforcement. The Police Service is tasked with the prevention and detection of crime and protecting the public. Whilst there is a public interest in better awareness, there is very strong public interest in safeguarding the protection of the public and maintaining effective law enforcement.
Therefore, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish a FGM enhanced dataset and uses the official statistics published by NHS Digital, which relates specifically to FGM in England only. These figures only cover those cases of FGM that come to the attention of healthcare providers. Appendix Tables 41-50 provide various break downs of the NHS digital data from 2015-2019, including the number of individuals identified by health services in England and the country where the FGM was undertaken – please see Section 8 following the below link:
Child physical abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2019 | Female genital mutilation
You may also find the below links of interest:
Female genital mutilation (FGM)
Multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
FGM mandatory reporting duty comes into force - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Female Genital Mutilation - NHS Digital
Further Question from Applicant
The table illustrates that there were instances in Q3 2020, and in Q2 and Q3 2021 but no numbers are given, are you able to give me those figures please?
Reply to Question
There were 3 cases in total, 1 on 2020 and 2 in 2021.