Almost 500 cases of female genital mutilation identified in just one month in England

An average of 15 cases were discovered each dayin November, according to data published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

Last November 466 cases of FGM were identified; while in October, the first month such figures were compiled, 455 cases were reported. The figures for December are expected this week.

Despite the apparently high number of FGM cases, no one has yet been convicted for the practice, which has been illegal in the UK since 1985.

Dhanuson Dharmasena is currently on trial accused of performing FGM on a patient at the Whittington hospital in north London, it is the first prosecution of its kind.

FGM is the deliberate partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.

It is often performed in north and east Africa, as well as in some Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, on pre-pubescent girls and is thought to mark the passage into womanhood.

John Cameron, the NSPCC’s head of child protection operations, called FGM a “barbaric practice”.

In contrast,neighbouring France has adopted a much less tolerant approach to tackling FGM. Its systematic examination of young girls has led to some hundred prosecutions.

‘’I think England is very tolerant because they put cultural relativism first," says Isabelle Gillette-Faye, a French sociologist. "So if in your country of origin, you cut your girl, then it’s possible in England as well.’’ Gillette-Faye suspects many French girls are sent to "easier" Britain to have the procedure done.

‘It’s easier to take the Eurostar to go to London, to a private clinic, and have someone cut the girl. It’s just easier, it’s less money than to go to another country,’’ she says.