Oral Answers

Ben Bradshaw Excerpts

Tuesday 25th April 2023 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

1. If he will make an estimate of the average waiting time for treatment for gender dysphoria; and if he will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

NHS England does not routinely collect or publish data on waiting times for treatment for gender dysphoria, but I can tell the right hon. Gentleman that as of February this year 28,290 adults were waiting for a first appointment in England.

[Mr Bradshaw]

Four years on average for an initial appointment, and seven years at the south-west clinic in Exeter. With healthcare for trans people in effect non-existent, the Government planning to remove trans human rights from the Equality Act 2010, breaking their promise to ban conversion therapy and to reform the gender recognition process, and now threatening to force schools to out trans students to their parents, can the Minister see why this tiny and particularly vulnerable minority feels under attack by the Government, and that some who can afford to are even leaving the country for a less hostile environment?