Lord Cashman

The guidance states that members of the House of Lords should expect answers to correspondence from Government Ministers and the Prime Minister within 20 working days. Where correspondence has to be transferred to another department for answer or advice it may take longer.

The guidance states that members of the House of Lords should expect answers to correspondence from Government Ministers and the Prime Minister within 20 working days. Where correspondence has to be transferred to another department for answer or advice it may take longer.

On 1 January 2025, indefinite restrictions preventing new patients aged under 18 years old from being supplied with puberty blockers for the purposes of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria, under the care of private or non-United Kingdom prescribers, took effect.

The Government is committed to transparency and accountability in its decision-making and understands people will wish to understand how this decision was reached. Further to my response on 7 January 2025 to the Noble Lord’s question, HL3426 tabled on 12 December 2024, I can confirm that the Government will publish shortly the full independent report by the Commission on Human Medicines on the indefinite banning order of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria and/or incongruence. I will gladly write to the Noble Lord when this it is published.

My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has held constructive roundtable discussions with a group of children and young people, and their parents, with lived experience of gender dysphoria and incongruence.

The Government remains committed to listening to the LGBT+ community. Department officials will write to you on how best to take forward your request.

On 11 December 2024, the Government published its response to the consultation on whether to introduce indefinite restrictions to prevent new patients aged under 18 years old from being supplied with puberty blockers for the purposes of gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria, under the care of private or non-United Kingdom prescribers. This response included recommendations from a report by an expert clinical committee, the Commission on Human Medicines. This decision has been further informed by the evidence gathered by Baroness Cass as part of her independent review of gender identity services for children and young people, The Cass Review, which is publicly available.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has held constructive, open, and honest roundtable discussions, including with children and young people, and their parents, with lived experience of gender dysphoria and incongruence. The Government remains committed to listening to the LGBT+ community.

In addition to the ongoing efforts to control Mpox clade IIb in the United Kingdom, there is widespread planning underway across the Government, including work by the Department, the UK Health Security Agency, and the National Health Service, to prepare for any potential cases of the high consequence infectious disease clades Ia or Ib of Mpox in the UK, and to help prevent onward transmission should any cases be imported.

An established clinical countermeasures programme is a core component of our pandemic preparedness and response capability. These clinical countermeasures include personal protective equipment and hygiene consumables, vaccines, and therapeutics, such as antivirals. The programme, including the balance of antivirals stockpiled, is informed by scientific and clinical assessment of the evidence base and is kept under review, building on lessons learned from previous outbreaks and emerging evidence on efficacy from ongoing clinical trials in epidemic hotspots.

The Department has noted the recent PALM007 study. The NHS in England has a duty to make available to patients in England any treatment or product recommended as clinically and cost effective by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Of the three vaccines, Imvanex is the only one licensed in the United Kingdom by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and in the European Union by the European Medicines Agency, for active immunisation against smallpox, Mpox, and other diseases caused by the vaccinia virus in adults.

Imvanex is the only currently available vaccine with real world evidence of protection against Mpox. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has agreed that the evidence it has reviewed is consistent with protection from Imvanex being maintained for approximately 10 years.