9. Will the First Minister make a statement on female genital mutilation protection orders in Wales? OAQ(5)0470(FM)

The Ministry of Justice collects this information and we understand that, until September 2016, no protection orders were issued in Wales. The Welsh Government does not tolerate any form of violence against women, including female genital mutilation, and, together with our partners, we are working hard to tackle this heinous crime.

I thank you for that answer. It is somewhat amazing that there have been no protection orders whatsoever issued and, consequently, no prosecutions for FGM in Wales. It is a crime against the person and it is the brutal abuse of minors, and we need to, in my opinion, call it out for what it is: it is child abuse—nothing more, nothing less. So, what I’m going to ask, Cabinet Secretary, is: according to the charity BAWSO, they currently support 788 families who are affected one way or another by FGM in Wales; will the Government work more closely with them to see if that support can be increased to allow those people to move forward, if it is required, to seek some protection orders and also, to work with the prosecution services, so that we can actually start prosecuting people in this country and send a very clear message that this will not be tolerated? Because it seems at the moment that it is being tolerated.

I thank Joyce Watson for the leadership she has taken in terms of addressing this and, indeed, also, I thank Jenny Rathbone, who chaired a recent event that was attended by many Members here today, and BAWSO was involved in that. It’s crucial that we enable and support our all-Wales honour-based violence leadership group. That’s about data collection and about ensuring that we have FGM safeguarding leads in all our health boards; it’s about ensuring that we develop an effective FGM care pathway for Wales so that we can have referrals into primary healthcare or third sector provision. Public Health Wales is revising and updating NHS Wales’s safeguarding training, and also we have the social services and well-being Act strengthening safeguarding procedures in Wales. All of this, of course, will lead to the point where we feel that mandatory reporting and the ability to take things forward to protection orders will be much more easily facilitated.

I thank the leader of the house.

Point of order emerging from questions. Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Diolch, Lywydd. I’d like to raise a point of order under Standing Order 13.9. Earlier in the Chamber this afternoon, the leader of UKIP in the Assembly made accusations about the conduct of both the Assembly Member for Rhondda and the Member of Parliament for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr relating to the campaign for the future of the school in Llangennech. Specifically, he accused Jonathan Edwards of engaging, and I quote,

‘in a public campaign of intimidation of one of those activists’.

These are comments that could well be considered libellous, perhaps, outside this Chamber. For the record, the Member of Parliament did not name a single member of the public; his letter to Jeremy Corbyn, which was published on his website, did not include any names of campaigners. Actually, the name of an individual was only published by another party when it was confirmed that they had suspended a member. I believe the misleading and factually incorrect comments should be withdrawn.

I thank the Member for that point of order. It’s quite right, of course, that our Standing Orders insist that we show courtesy on all occasions in this Assembly. May I ask all Members to bear in mind that that courtesy is necessary, particularly for our fellow elected Member here in Wales, including Members of Parliament? I don’t believe there’s any more to say on that point of order, just to remind all Members to be courteous on all occasions and to avoid accusations.