Petition Lift restrictions on prescribing puberty blockers to trans children.

Government responded

This response was given on 25 March 2025

The Government has no plans to reverse the legislation. It is backed by evidence from the Cass Review and independent recommendations by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM).

The Government wants trans people and their families to feel safe and accepted in our society, and to be able to live with freedom and dignity. It is also essential that we ensure healthcare provision available to children and young people experiencing gender dysphoria and/or incongruence is safe, evidence-based and clinically appropriate.

These key values are at the heart of the Secretary of State’s decision to introduce an indefinite ban on puberty blocking medicines for new patients, with gender dysphoria and/or incongruence. This came into effect on 1 January 2025 and will be formally reviewed in 2027.

This legislation is available at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/1319/made

The decision to implement this legislation was taken with great care and was informed by multiple strands of evidence, including, but not limited to:

I. The ‘Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people’ (the ‘Cass Review’). Further information can be found at: https://cass.independent-review.uk/

II. Independent expert advice from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM). Further information can be found at: CHM's report on proposed changes to the availability of puberty blockers - GOV.UK - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chms-report-on-proposed-changes-to-the-availability-of-puberty-blockers

III. Responses to a targeted consultation to the ‘Proposed changes to the availability of puberty blockers for under 18s’. Further information can be found at: Government's response to the targeted consultation on proposed changes to the availability of puberty blockers - GOV.UK - https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-changes-to-the-availability-of-puberty-blockers-for-under-18s/outcome/governments-response-to-the-targeted-consultation-on-proposed-changes-to-the-availability-of-puberty-blockers

IV. Constructive, open and honest in-person discussions between the Secretary of State and children, young people, and their families, with lived experience of gender dysphoria and/or incongruence

In his statement to the House of Commons 11 December 2024, quoting the CHM report, the Secretary of State set out that the current prescribing environment and care pathway for gender dysphoria and/or incongruence in some private settings, and those outside the UK, presents an ‘unacceptable safety risk’ for children and young people.

The CHM, as detailed in their report, observed evidence that information and healthcare provided to some children and young people by private practitioners appeared ‘unsafe from a prescribing medicine safety perspective’ and would ‘likely not be considered to have fulfilled Gillick competence, safe prescribing practice, or be consistent with General Medical Council (GMC) guidance’. They additionally noted that there was an ‘absence of long-term safety and efficacy data for this population’.

These are very serious conclusions which indicate that transgender young people were, uniquely, being exposed to unacceptable risks.

The CHM made recommendations that prescriptions for puberty blockers from prescribers registered overseas should be banned permanently. They further recommended that the prescribing environment in the UK should be made safer through additional safeguards. In particular, and in response to recommendation 3b, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked to develop a quality standard for gender dysphoria services. Additionally, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is considering how to introduce a risk acknowledgement form (RAF) which prescribers would complete with the patient and/or guardian, in response to recommendation 3a.

Over the last year, NHS England has opened three new gender services in the North West, London and the South West, that offer a fundamentally different clinical model, embedding multi-disciplinary teams in specialist children’s hospitals. This model includes a nominated paediatrician or psychiatrist with overall clinical responsibility for patient safety in these services. A fourth service will open in the East of England in Spring. NHS England is making progress towards its commitment for there to be a specialist children’s gender service in every region by 2026.

NHS England has also published a new service specification for the National Referral Support Service for Specialist Services for Children and Young People with Gender Incongruence. This means that a referral for the specialist Children and Young People’s Gender Service can be only made by an NHS-commissioned, secondary care-level paediatric service or a Children and Young Person mental health service. This will help ensure that healthcare professionals with the relevant expertise conduct the assessment and help determine any co-existing mental health or other health needs of these children and their onward care.

Recently, The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have published details on the upcoming PATHWAYS: Puberty Suppression and Transitional Healthcare with Adaptive Youth Services clinical study. The study aims to build the evidence base on the care needs and development of children and young people. For further information regarding the trial please visit: https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR167530.

Department of Health and Social Care