Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what forms of conduct that the Government intends to criminalise through the draft Conversion Practices Bill are not already capable of being prosecuted under existing law; and how many cases have been identified since 2018 in which action could not be taken solely because no existing offence applied.

There are gaps in the current law which allow abusive conversion practices to happen lawfully and that is unacceptable. At the moment these abusive practices can go under the radar because people do not recognise abusive non-physical conversion practices for what they are.

Without specific legislation and a legal definition, these incidents are difficult to formally record, nor is there a consistent framework for victims or safeguarding professionals to identify them as abusive. Our Draft Bill provides a necessary legal definition, which will ensure that this abuse can be accurately recognised, formally tracked, and prosecuted.