Policy paper

Health and Care Bill: banning virginity testing

Updated 10 March 2022

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‘Virginity testing is a violation of the victim’s human rights and is associated with both immediate and long-term consequences that are detrimental to her physical, psychological and social well-being’ - World Health Organization

This fact sheet explains how the government plans to protect and safeguard vulnerable women and girls by banning the harmful practice of virginity testing in the United Kingdom.

1. Background

In early 2021, following widespread concerns that some young women and girls are being coerced and forced to have their virginity tested, and in some cases subsequently undergoing hymen repair surgery, the government undertook an intensive review to understand more about virginity testing and hymenoplasty. This included looking at the settings they are being carried out in and by whom.

The review concluded that virginity testing is not a medical procedure and has no clinical or scientific merit - that is to say there is no reliable way to ascertain if a women or girl is a virgin, nor is there any reason to know.

Virginity tests are carried out for cultural reasons and may be performed before a young woman or girl gets married as proof of her ‘virginity’ and so called ‘honour’. Virginity testing can also be carried out in other circumstances, for example if a teenage girl is seen with a boy and there is a perceived need to ‘prove’ that she is still a virgin. All stakeholders outlined that women and girls are often coerced or forced into having the ‘test’ by their family members or their intended husband’s family.

Virginity testing predominantly takes place in private healthcare settings and is carried out by healthcare professionals. The review found no evidence of virginity testing being carried out on the NHS, as it is not recognised as a medical procedure. It can also take place in ‘community settings’ such as the home, where it may be performed by family members or community leaders. Private providers are not required to record or share data, and virginity testing isn’t an advertised service.

The review produced a clear consensus that virginity testing should be banned. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that virginity testing is a violation of a girl or woman’s human rights and is harmful to physical, psychological and social well-being, and advocates for this practice to be banned. Stakeholders, and the literature, asserted that virginity testing is a form of violence against women and girls. Third-sector organisations explained that virginity testing is linked to child marriage and forced marriage, and other forms of family coercive control including physical and emotional control. Moreover, women who ‘fail’ a virginity test are at risk of honour-based violence including emotional abuse, and family/community disownment - this is unacceptable.

Taking all of the above into account, a ban will convey a clear message to perpetrators that this practice is not acceptable in British Society. Stakeholders felt a ban would empower women and girls, and the wider community, to speak out against this practice and report it. Reducing the prevalence of violence against women and girls will enable women and girls in these communities to live freely and to their full potential without fear of being subjected to abuse. This message would help raise awareness that there are no means for testing an individual’s sexual history and will help to dispel the dangerous myths and misogynistic attitudes that surround a woman’s sexuality.

We recognise, however, that banning the procedure alone will not tackle these harmful misconceptions and misbeliefs that surround virginity, and we will also put in place a programme of education in community, educational and clinical settings.

We remain concerned that hymenoplasty (hymen-repair surgery) is directly related to virginity testing and stems from similar repressive attitudes towards a woman’s sexuality. Therefore, we have established the Hymenoplasty Expert Panel to consider the clinical, legal and ethical aspects of the procedure and whether it should be banned. The Panel will make its recommendations to Ministers before Christmas.

Why is current legislation not sufficient?

Virginity testing is not currently an offence in its own right. 

A virginity test might involve an assault or battery, if the woman or girl who is subjected to the test does not give her consent, or if she is coerced into giving her ostensible consent. However, there may be situations where a woman consents, and that would be currently be legal. There are other reasons why assault and battery would not appropriately address the problem of virginity testing, including the fact that assault and battery are time-barred after 6 months, and honour-based offences often do not come to light until after a longer period of time. The penalties for assault and battery are also not sufficient for the gravity of virginity testing which, although it may not involve serious physical harm, requires a higher maximum penalty because of the psychological harm and the wider harm to society that this unacceptable practice represents.

Virginity testing would also not be caught by existing sexual offences because, although the purpose of the test is to establish whether sexual intercourse has taken place, the examination itself is not sexual in nature. 

The Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Act 2003 does not apply because virginity testing does not involve the mutilation of woman or girl’s genitalia (as FGM does).

It has been questioned whether a regulatory requirement, mandated by, for example, the General Medical Council would be sufficient to capture a virginity test. However, while testing is something carried out by medical professionals, this is not always the case. Many cases, as noted above, happen within family networks and communities. As such, professional regulation would not be a solution. 

Taking the above into account, it is necessary to create new statutory offence.

2. What will the Bill do?

Each of the below offences applies to each home nation in the United Kingdom, when we refer to a habitual resident, they can be resident in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

2.1 Carrying out a virginity test

The Bill defines “Virginity Testing” as the examination of the female genitalia, with or without consent, for the purpose, or purported purpose, of determining virginity.

Virginity testing would usually take place in person but could also be carried out remotely. It is not possible to determine whether a woman or girl has ever had sexual intercourse and, as such, it does not matter whether the person conducting the test believes, or does not believe, that the examination will be able to ascertain whether a woman or girl is a virgin. In either of these circumstances, the offence will apply.

The Bill will make it an offence for anyone to carry out virginity testing in the UK, and for a UK national or habitual resident of the UK to carry out virginity testing outside the UK. 

In response to concerns that women or girls will be taken abroad and subjected to a virginity test (as is often seen with honour-based abuse offences, such as FGM or forced marriage), the Bill will make the offences extra-territorial. This means that a person who is a UK national who carries out virginity testing outside the UK would be guilty of the offences and could be tried in the UK. A person who is not a UK national, but who is a habitual resident of the UK, could be tried in the part of the UK where they live. The victim of the testing does not need to be a UK national or habitual resident.

Women and girls are coerced into undergoing a virginity test which is a degrading and intrusive abuse which dehumanises the victim. As such, it is irrelevant whether or not the victim of the testing ‘consents’ to the carrying out of the test. This is particularly important as virginity tests are used as a pre-cursor to other honour-based abuses, such as child marriage or forced marriage. It can lead to both physical and psychological trauma and, as such, it should not be something that could be tolerated in British Society even where women and girls give their consent.

There is no reliable way of establishing virginity, nor is there any clinical reason to know if a woman or girl is a virgin. As such, we are clear that the purpose of a healthcare, safeguarding or forensic examination would never be to establish virginity or otherwise and therefore, a defence to this effect has not been included in the offence.

2.2 Offering a virginity test

The offence of offering a virginity offence has been included as a separate offence so that people who are offering the service can be prevented from going ahead with testing and potential victims can be protected.

The Bill makes it an offence for anyone in the UK to offer to carry out virginity testing in the UK, or to make an offer in the UK to carry out testing on a UK national or habitual resident.

In addition to this, it is an offence for a UK national or habitual resident to make an offer outside the UK to carry out virginity testing anywhere. The offer does not need to be for testing of a UK national or habitual resident. 

The offence of offering a virginity test would cover anyone present in the UK who offers to carry out virginity testing anywhere in the UK. They would also cover a person in the UK who is neither a UK national nor a habitual resident of the UK and who makes an offer here to carry out virginity testing overseas on people from the UK.

2.3 Aiding and abetting the carrying out of a virginity test

The Bill will make it an offence to aid and abet the carrying out of virginity testing. This is aimed at preventing family members from arranging the testing of women and girls, or assisting with it, for example by accompanying the woman or girl to the test.

The extra-territoriality of this offence differs from the above. For there to be extra-territorial effect, not only must the perpetrator of this offence be a UK national or habitual resident, but the person being tested must be too. This is to prevent UK nationals or residents taking UK women and girls for testing overseas or making arrangements for such testing.

2.4 Penalties

The offence will be ‘triable either-way’. That is to say that the offence may be tried in a Magistrates’ court, or in a Crown Court.

The offences will carry a maximum penalty of a 5-year custodial sentence and/or an unlimited fine.

3. These provisions will help to promote integration, reduce bureaucracy, improve accountability and public confidence

3.1 Public confidence:

Our amendment seeks to increase public confidence by demonstrating that the government is committed to tackling and reducing the prevalence of violence against women and girls and, ultimately, ensuring that vulnerable women and girls are safer in the United Kingdom. The 3 offences introduced ensure that:

  • women are protected from being subjected to a test
  • the offering of a test is criminalised
  • it would also be an offence for someone to arrange for a family member to be tested

As noted above, the maximum penalty for these offences is 5 years, providing a sentence that is befitting of the crime, in recognition of the physical and psychological harm caused to women and girls as a result of virginity testing.

4. Further information

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