Female_Genital_Mutilation_Act_2003
Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003
United Kingdom legislation
The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (c. 31) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom applying to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It replaced the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985, extending the ban on female genital mutilation to address the practice of taking girls abroad to undergo FGM procedures, and increased the maximum penalty from 5 to 14 years' imprisonment.[2] The Act does not extend to Scotland: the corresponding legislation there is the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005.
Experts said in 2003 that about 74,000 women in the UK had been subjected to the procedure, and that up to 7,000 girls would be at risk of being subjected to it abroad,[3] and on 14 July of that year the proposed new law was introduced by the Labour peer Ruth Rendell as House of Lords Bill 98.[4]