Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Office for Equality and Opportunity's press release entitled Government pushes forward with conversion practices ban to protect LGBT+ people from abuse, published on 25 June 2026, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the draft Bill in providing legal certainty to religious leaders providing pastoral support.

The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny. The draft Bill sets robust thresholds to target clear instances of harmful and abusive acts. Officials have assessed a range of evidence and research to develop and deliver measures that comprehensively protect people from abusive conversion practices.

We welcome further cross-party engagement and scrutiny to ensure our proposed draft Bill is effective in the long-term.