Fourteen cases where girls have been suspected of being at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) have been referred to Police Scotland since the force was set up last April.
Those cases involved 16 girls who were thought to be at risk, but Detective Superintendent William Guild told MSPs that no incidents of FGM being performed were identified.
He revealed the figures as MSPs on Holyrood's Equal Opportunities Committee considered the problem, with a submission from Police Scotland stating that the "prevalence of FGM in Scotland is unknown".
It added: "A national FGM register has been established, indicating that since the 1 April 2013 there have been 14 referrals submitted to Police Scotland relating to 16 children at risk of FGM. These referrals have been investigated and whilst no criminality was identified, interventions have been made on a multi-agency basis to reduce the risk to the children concerned."
When asked by committee convener Margaret McCulloch if any child had been "actually harmed", Mr Guild said: "No. There were no cases identified."
There have been no prosecutions for FGM in Scotland since legislation to deal with the problem was introduced in 1985.
Mr Guild told the committee: "Our sense is there is a lack of referrals coming in about FGM."
He said the practice could be "entrenched in affected communities", adding: "It happens behind closed doors, it's a form of familial abuse often without independent witnesses."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article