Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2018 to Question 146160 on LGBT People: Surveys, whether she plans to include legislative proposals on gay conversion therapy in her Department’s LGBT Action Plan.

This Government firmly believes that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is not an illness to be cured. We are not prepared to see such activity continue either in the regulated professional sector or outside of it and have taken action to stamp out this bogus treatment.

We have previously worked with the main registration and accreditation bodies for psychotherapy and counselling practitioners, including the UK Council for Psychotherapy, to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to put a stop to this practice.

One major hurdle to tackling this issue is the lack of robust evidence on conversion therapy in the UK. We believe that an effective policy response must be built on a solid evidence base. That is why we included questions on conversion therapy in the National LGBT Survey, which received over 100,000 responses.

Officials in the Government Equalities Office are analysing the results of the survey, including those on conversion therapy. These results will be published shortly. As the Prime Minister announced last month, the Government will also publish an action plan setting out steps Government will take to address the survey findings.