To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what effect UK overseas development assistance has had on levels of female genital mutilation over the last 10 years.

Today a girl is about one-third less likely to be cut than 30 years ago, but UNICEF estimates that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The UK leads the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. Since 2013, our programmes have enabled 8,000 communities, representing 24 million people, to pledge to abandon FGM, and over 3 million girls to receive FGM protection and care services.

We know, however, that more needs to be done and in 2018 we announced a further £50 million UK aid package – the biggest single investment worldwide to date by any international donor – to tackle this issue across the most-affected countries in Africa.