Charities campaigning for the end of the barbaric and ignorant abuses of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Forced Marriage (FM) in the UK have had considerable support from the government and agencies in the last year or so.

In February last year the Metropolitan Police announced that, as well as prosecuting those carrying out FGM in London it would prosecute all those involved in sending girls abroad to be genitally mutilated, including the families and relatives who order it and those who book the flights and other arrangements. Those caught face prison sentences of up to 14 years.

And this month the government announced 7 year jail terms for those arranging forced marriages in the UK, under the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.

A one-day conference on the issues, Tackling Honour Based Violence, Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation is being co-hosted by specialist charity FGM National Clinical Group and takes place in Central London on July 16

FGM is prevalent in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. As well as in London in the UK it is also known to happen in areas such as Birmingham, Cardiff, Crawley, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Oxford, Reading, Sheffield and Slough, to more than 65,000 women and girls, with an estimated 20,000 under 15 years old at risk every year.