Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what information her Department holds on the number of incidents of LGBT conversion therapy in each of the last three years; and if she will publish a summary of examples of incidents of that therapy.

To better understand the nature and impact of conversion therapy practices in the UK, the Government commissioned research on conversion therapy, including around the prevalence and nature of such practices in the UK. This was published on 29 October, alongside our public consultation on how to ban conversion therapy, and is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/conversion-therapy-an-evidence-assessment-and-qualitative-study/conversion-therapy-an-evidence-assessment-and-qualitative-study.

This report summarises the review undertaken of research published from January 2000 to June 2020 as well as the findings from qualitative interviews with 30 people who have had experience of conversion therapy in the UK since 2000.

The report also draws on the findings from the National LGBT Survey of over 108,000 people in 2017, including that 5% of respondents had been offered so called ‘conversion’ or ‘reparative’ therapy and a further 2% had undergone it. The survey also found that transgender respondents were more likely to have reported having undergone or been offered conversion therapy (13%) than non-transgender respondents (7%). The full results of the survey were published in 2018 and are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report

In addition, we actively engage with a wide range of civil society stakeholders on the subject of LGBT conversion therapy and monitor the international approaches being taken.