Healthcare, educational and social-work staff should be required by law to report to the police suspected cases of female genital mutilation, the top prosecutor in England and Wales has said.

The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, said there had only been 11 referrals of female genital mutilation cases by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service in the last two to three years, despite at least 144 complaints to police.

The most senior prosecuting officer was appearing before the House of Commons home affairs select committee after the first prosecution for female gential mutilation was announced last Friday – 29 years after it became illegal in England and Wales. The prosecution is being brought against a London doctor and a second man. The crime carries a maximum 14-year sentence.

The DPP chief said there were a number of loopholes in the current legislation on FGM she wanted to see closed, but added the lack of prosecutions had stemmed from a dearth of evidence rather than flaws in the legislation.

Saunders said the 11 referrals in recent years had only involved five cases. At the same time as it was announced the first prosecution would go ahead, the CPS said they would not proceed with the other four.

The DPP said the four dropped FGM cases included one that was new and three that had been reconsidered after previous decisions to take no further action. In each of the four cases, crown prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

The committee chairman, Keith Vaz, said they had taken evidence that as many as 66,000 women in England and Wales had been subjected to FGM. "Eleven referrals sounds a very small figure," he said.

Saunders said it was no use waiting for "the archetypal young girl to come through the door" who was willing to give evidence against her family. What was needed was more "intelligence-led investigations" and more professionals referring cases to the police.

The DPP chief said she had written to ministers last month urging them to make it mandatory for healthcare and other professionals to report any evidence of FGM to the police.

But she declined to comment on MPs' recommendations for the adoption of a law, similar to one in France, that requires young girls to undergo mandatory medical examinations. "I do not think that is a matter for me," she said. "That is a wider policy issue."

But she did back moves advocated by the Solicitor-General, Oliver Heald, to place a duty on parents to protect their children and make it illegal to permit their daughters to be mutilated. She also backed moves to extend the jurisdiction of the current FGM law to those who are temporary visitors to Britain.