WIREDGOV

Police and Crime Commissioners welcome Parliament’s decision to amend the Health and Care Bill to ban so-called ‘virginity testing’ in England and Wales, including making it illegal to offer such tests.

Joint Victims Leads Donna Jones, the PCC for Hampshire; and London’s Deputy Mayor Sophie Linden, said today: “There is simply no place for these degrading patriarchal practices in our society. The concept is practically medieval.

“We encourage anyone with information about clinics, or individuals, performing or promoting these ‘tests’ to contact the police. That includes people seeking to arrange travel for a victim to undergo a procedure abroad.

“We have already outlawed Female Genital Mutilation and this new law goes further. We strongly urge Government to consider banning hymenoplasty surgery too - making it clear once and for all that women and girls’ bodies belong to themselves and themselves alone.”