Girls at risk of FGM: best available estimate is patchy

"Shockingly, each year, more than 20,000 British girls are at risk of FGM [female genital mutilation] too. Just imagine, that's roughly the equivalent of all the pupils in 20 UK secondary schools."

So said Nick Clegg yesterday in a speech in which he outlined Lib Dem thinking on how to tackle the issue.

As we covered earlier in the year, this estimate has issues.

It was produced in 2007 based partly on data from the 2001 census on the number of girls who come from countries where FGM is prevalent, or whose mothers come from those countries. In the decade since that census the numbers falling into this group are likely to have changed.

It was also based on the assumption that the girls were at the same risk of FGM in the UK as in their - or their mother's - country of origin. The researchers noted that this might not be true, and recommended further work to produce a more accurate estimate.

So how many girls are at risk? Unfortunately it's very difficult to say. According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, information on the numbers of girls at risk of FGM is not systematically collected by health or social service providers, and nor are the numbers of girls who have been treated following mutilation.