A London-based doctor and a second man are to be prosecuted for female genital mutilation (FGM) in the first case of its kind in Britain.

Dr Dhanoun Dharmasena, from the Whittington Hospital in London, and Hasan Mohamed, who is not a medic, are to face the first charges brought under the 2003 FGM Act, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said yesterday.

Dr Dharmasena is alleged to have carried out the procedure on a woman who had given birth in November 2012 and that Mr Mohamed encouraged and helped him.

Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said that the Metropolitan Police had asked the CPS to consider allegations that, following a woman giving birth in November 2012, a doctor at the Whittington Hospital in north London repaired the patient's previous mutilation, allegedly carrying out FGM himself.

"There is sufficient evidence and it would be in the public interest to prosecute Dr Dhanoun Dharmasena," Ms Saunders said.

Dr Dharmasena will be prosecuted under the FGM Act while Mr Mohamed faces charges related to encouraging the crime.

Prosecutors said they had also looked at four other cases - one of which was new and three that were reconsidered after previous decisions to take no further action - and found there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

FGM has been a criminal offence since 1985. The maximum sentence was increased in 2003 from five to 14 years in jail.

An estimated 66,000 women in Britain have been mutilated and more than 20,000 girls under 15 are thought to be at risk of the practice, which the United Nations classes as torture.

Figures released earlier this month suggested that since 2009 nearly 4,000 women and girls had been treated at London hospitals after being mutilated.

And a report published last year by health workers' groups found "gaps in responsiveness" in dealing with FGM.

Children's charity NSPCC launched a dedicated helpline last year after it said more than 70 women and girls were seeking treatment each month.

But only "a tiny fraction" of victims came forward, the NSPCC said, and that they were trapped behind "a wall of silence."