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, what discussions have taken place with the Crown Prosecution Service regarding the evidential threshold required to secure convictions under the proposed offences.

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.

The pre-legislative scrutiny process will test and strengthen our draft Bill ensuring it is effective in the long term. Once the draft legislation has completed pre-legislative scrutiny and the subsequent parliamentary passage, it would be at this point that the Government would produce any necessary guidance. We would engage with all relevant public sector bodies in developing any such guidance.

I would like to assure you, My officials and I engaged with a wide range of stakeholders from across relevant sectors, this includes the Crown Prosecution Service.