Speaking at Westminster Briefing’s 'Standing up to FGM' conference, Williams stressed the importance of raising awareness of FGM across all levels in government departments and public bodies.
In response to a question put forward by CSW on whether the Civil Service is offering training to civil servants to raise awareness of FGM and how to deal with it, Stephens said: “Well if there isn’t [training], there should be.”
According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 1,279 active cases of FGM and 467 newly identified cases of FGM were reported nationally in the month of September, when collection of this information became mandated.
Williams adds: “I do think that there is a huge problem that most people simply haven’t heard of it [FGM] and if they’ve heard of it, they don’t know what it is and once they know what the acronym stands for they probably don’t explore it any further.
“So I think there is an issue for the relevant parts of the Civil Service but also the police as well.”