Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to prevent health companies based overseas from selling hormone treatments online to people living in the UK.

In response to recommendations by the Commission on Human Medicines, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced an indefinite ban on gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues for new patients with gender dysphoria and/or incongruence. This legislation came into effect on 1 January 2025 as the previous section 62 emergency order expired, and is available at the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/1319/made

This indefinite order continues to prohibit the sale or supply of GnRH analogues prescribed by private United Kingdom-registered prescribers, for gender dysphoria or gender incongruence, to under 18 year olds not already taking them, and the sale and supply of the drugs against prescriptions from prescribers registered in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, for any purposes, to anyone under 18 years old.

Regarding other hormone treatments, we would always recommend patients use services and clinical practitioners registered in the UK so they can be assured of the safety and quality of the services they receive. Medicines bought outside the legal supply chain do not have a UK marketing authorisation and may be harmful. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency works with national and international partners to prevent unlicensed medicines from entering the UK.