SLOWLY but surely, female genital mutilation will be fought even if no one has ever been convicted in Britain over the harmful custom, a Bolton-based expert has said.

Ibrahim Ismail, community development manager at the FGM Project, spoke about local efforts to tackle the customary circumcision — the cutting of a woman's reproductive organs for non-medical reasons — in the wake of a damning report by MPs.

Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee investigated measures to counter FGM and said in its findings: "It is beyond belief that there still has not been a successful prosecution for an FGM offence since it was made illegal over 30 years ago.

"That is a lamentable record and the failure to identify cases, to prosecute and to achieve convictions can only have negative consequences for those who are brave enough to come forward to highlight this crime."

The FGM Project, comprising a drop-in centre providing advice and support, and community outreach work, is run by Bolton Solidarity Community Association from its Mayor Street, Bolton, offices.

Mr Ismail said: "We are aware that there's been a lot of work in terms of trying to counter FGM and identify it within the community. Bolton is one of the lead areas.

"You have to take a really long term approach and that's about education and raising awareness.

"I think a lot of it is to do with education and raising awareness of the health, legal, physical and psychological damage it can do to women and that in the UK it's illegal.

"More people are becoming more confident enough to speak out."

Eighty individuals were identified as being FGM victims in Bolton in the 2015/16 year according to official figures.

In July five sisters from the same family were made subject to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Protection Orders to shield them from the injurious custom, practised largely in Africa.

Mr Ismail said: "All of the cases we have seen are historical cases.

"Over 90 per cent of women in Somalia would have gone through the process, and it's similar in Ethiopia and Yemen, so the likelihood of someone of a particular age coming to Bolton and having undergone FGM in their country of origin is very high."

Mr Ismail said the new registered cases are almost exclusively adult migrants to Britain and even though they have to be officially recorded as a victim, such as when they present as pregnant, there is no way of investigating the circumstances of the offence, which may have taken place decades ago in their homeland.

It is feared parents may resort to either flying in specialist 'cutters' to carry out the surgery on young girls or earmarked children are being taken abroad specifically to undergo the barbaric practice.

Mr Ismail said: "There's no evidence suggesting that sort of thing is happening in the North West as a whole.

"There's no use of female cutters at the present moment. But we're not complacent."

Greater Manchester's Police and Crime Commissioner and interim mayor Tony Lloyd said: "It’s brutal, barbaric and cannot be justified on any grounds.

"Prosecutions are not our ultimate goal. We want to stop this from happening in the first place.

"Our approach to tackling this issue has to be a twin-track approach; challenging, educating and changing behaviours, as well as rigorous enforcement."

Mr Lloyd said work is under way to improve the existing FGM Protocol that sets out how Greater Manchester's frontline professionals respond to the practice and there are plans to improve support for child victims.

Greater Manchester Police has delivered training around female genital mutilation, actively engaging with communities to highlight the health and social consequences, as well as the illegalities.

n Find more information on FGM at www.gmvictims.org.uk/fgm or report an offence via 101