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David Cameron’s new public health minister today pledged to make the prevention of female genital mutilation a top priority.

Jane Ellison warned that Britain has been “failing” to protect thousands of girls from the barbaric practice. The Conservative MP for Battersea told how she was determined to prevent “child abuse” that was leaving victims to face life-long physical and mental pain.

She said the cutting “shouldn’t happen in 21st-century Britain” and revealed that her desire to stop more girls suffering was “one of the things that got me out in bed in the morning” during years of campaigning on the issue.

In her first interview since taking office this month, Ms Ellison, who previously headed Parliament’s all-party FGM group, announced a series of planned measures to combat the threat of mutilation. They include:

Proper data collection by hospitals to end the current “ridiculous” ignorance about the scale of the problem.

A drive to improve “patchy” awareness of FGM among teachers so that victims and girls at risk can be identified and helped.

Guidelines requiring NHS staff to alert health workers about at-risk girls to be applied across all hospitals.

Copying methods used in successful African schemes that have dramatically reduced the prevalence of cutting.

Greater efforts to identify victims to ensure they receive treatment for the physical and mental consequences.

Announcing the moves, Ms Ellison told the Evening Standard — which has been campaigning for action to halt FGM — that Britain had arrived at a “critical moment” in the battle against the practice, with ministers determined to achieve significant progress. “There has never been this much will to make progress at government level,” she declared. “We are anxious to remind people that these are young girls, that this is a safeguarding issue — and everything else is secondary to that.”

She added that cultural sensitivities and the secretive nature of the practice meant insufficient action had been taken so far. “Since FGM was made illegal by Britain in 1985 we have ended up failing girls, we haven’t protected them,” she said.

Ms Ellison also hoped to see a landmark first prosecution for genital mutilation, saying it would send out an “important message” that would help deter potential perpetrators.

The extent of FGM, which can involve the cutting of all or parts of the clitoris or stitching up of the vagina, in Britain is unknown — partly because of a lack of record-keeping by hospitals.

The Standard revealed recently, however, that more than 2,000 victims have been treated at seven London hospitals with specialist services during the past three-and-a-half years.

Another hospital, St George’s in Tooting — which serves Ms Ellison’s constituency — has since revealed that its maternity unit has treated a further 1,546 victims since 2002.

Many other hospitals have been unable to provide statistics, however, because the NHS has no formal method for recording FGM.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service is continuing to study files on five alleged FGM cases submitted to it by the Met. Files on at least two previous cases have resulted in no action.