The National Secular Society has warned of a ‘catastrophic failure of child safeguarding’ after damning new research reveals boys are coming to serious harm following circumcision in Birmingham.
Data acquired by the NSS shows 17 baby boys were treated for “life threatening haemorrhage, shock or sepsis which relates to a circumcision” at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust last year.
A further 29 babies were treated at the Trust for serious complications between 2022 and 2024, at an estimated cost of £264,000 to the taxpayer.
The NHS only funds medically necessary circumcisions, which are rarely needed for infants, suggesting that many of the procedures were performed in the local community for non-therapeutic (i.e. religious or cultural) reasons.
Under UK law, anyone can legally circumcise boys, even if they have no medical training or “proven expertise”. Anaesthesia does not have to be used, and doctors struck off the medical register for dangerous circumcisions can continue to legally circumcise boys as laypeople.
At least five babies have died since 2007 following non-therapeutic circumcisions, including Celian Noumbiwe, Goodluck Caubergs, Angelo Ofori-Mintah, Oliver Asante-Yeboah and Mohamed Abdisamad.
Labour MP acts to regulate circumcision
The research comes as Labour MP Sam Carling has tabled an amendment to a Government bill which would require all circumcisions to be performed by regulated healthcare professionals.
Carling said: “The need to strengthen the regulation of non-therapeutic male circumcision could not be clearer.
“The tragic death of Mohamed Abdisamad in 2023, and other tragic deaths and serious injuries in recent years, has shown that the legal framework in this space is simply not good enough. My amendment would enact the recommendations of the coroner in Mohamed’s case, who was clear that the status quo, in which anyone can perform a circumcision with no requirements on infection control measures or aftercare, would lead to future deaths.”
Multi-agency child safeguarding failure in Birmingham
A child coming to serious harm as a result of a parent’s religious or cultural practice would usually trigger a child safeguarding referral.
But, despite dozens of babies suffering serious complications, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust made no child safeguarding referrals relating to circumcision between January 2022 and March 2026. The NSS has repeatedly requested to meet with Trust officials to discuss its concerns, but has not received a reply.
Many local child safeguarding agencies have specific policies on male circumcision. The London Safeguarding Children Board says circumcision may constitute “significant harm” if the child suffers an infection or “physical functional or cosmetic damage”.
But Birmingham’s Children’s Services, now known as Birmingham Children’s Trust, told the NSS it does not have a policy on circumcision.
Judges, coroners and religious groups support changing the law
Two unregulated circumcisers, Mohammed Siddiqui and Mohammad Alazawi, were jailed last year for serious circumcision related crimes against boys, including GBH and child cruelty. Following the convictions, the Crown Prosecution Service added circumcision to its prosecutorial guidance for the first time.
A judge in one of the cases said: “safeguards and protections must now be put in place and put in place as a matter of urgency, to ensure that babies and young children are protected”.
Two coroners, one in 2015 and one in 2025, have issued prevention of future death reports after boys died following circumcision performed by unregulated circumcisers. Both called for action to protect boys, but the Government has refused to change the law.
Religious groups have also called for change. Earlier this year, the Muslim Council of Britain said the lack of regulation creates “unacceptable risks” and “addressing those risks to protect young boys should be an urgent priority.”
Rabbi Jonathan Romain has called for circumcisions performed by unqualified individuals to be criminalised. He has also called for the circumcision rite of metzitzah b’peh, in which the circumciser sucks the boy’s circumcision wound, to be “outlawed”. Metzitzah can transmit herpes to the child, which can lead to brain damage or death.
NSS: ‘Catastrophic failure of child safeguarding’
National Secular Society human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez said: “It is appalling that baby boys are suffering life threatening complications as a result of medically unnecessary genital cutting in Birmingham.
“The inaction of those charged with protecting children represents a catastrophic safeguarding failure. This cavalier approach is endangering lives and must be remedied.
“Sam Carling deserves credit for confronting a dangerous gap in the law that successive governments have failed to address. Reforming the law to protect boys from death and serious harm is an urgent necessity. At a bare minimum, circumcision must be performed by a regulated healthcare professional and anaesthesia must be used.”
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