Conversion Therapy

(asked on 19th January 2022) - View Source

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent progress her Department has made on banning conversion therapy.


Answered by
Mike Freer Portrait
Mike Freer
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 24th January 2022

The Government is committed to banning the practice of all coercive so-called ‘conversion therapy’ in this country, strengthening existing criminal law provisions and introducing an offence which protects under-18s and those who are unwillingly subjected to these abhorrent practices.

The Government is currently consulting on our proposals to legislate for a ban on conversion therapy. The question is how, not whether, we will ban conversion therapy. We are engaging with a wide range of relevant stakeholders, victims and professionals to ensure that the ban is effective in ending different forms of conversion therapy. The consultation runs until Friday 4 February and I would encourage anyone with an interest who has not yet done so to respond at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/banning-conversion-therapy.

The consultation responses will be used to further refine the Government’s policy proposals on banning conversion therapy and inform the process of developing legislation. We will prepare a Bill for this Spring to be introduced as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

Reticulating Splines