Puberty blockers ban imposed by Tory government is lawful, high court rules

A ban on puberty blockers introduced by the Conservative government using emergency legislation was lawful, the high court has ruled.

The campaign group TransActual, and a young person who cannot be named, tried to challenge the decision of the then health secretary, Victoria Atkins, to impose a “banning order” on puberty blockers, which suppress the natural production of sex hormones in order to delay puberty.

At a hearing on 12 July, the high court in London heard the secondary legislation prevented the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricted NHS provision to within clinical trials.

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, which defended the claim, said the case should be dismissed.

In a ruling on Monday, Mrs Justice Lang dismissed the challenges that had argued the ban was unlawful.

She said: “This decision required a complex and multi-factored predictive assessment, involving the application of clinical judgment and the weighing of competing risks and dangers, with which the court should be slow to interfere.”

Although the emergency ban was implemented by the previous Conservative government, the court previously heard it could be made permanent by new Labour ministers.

The health secretary, Wes Streeting, said earlier this month he was “treading cautiously” in his decision amid “lots of fear and anxiety”.

Streeting has faced criticism from within his own party for the decision, with members of Labour’s LGBTQ+ wing writing to him earlier this month with “concerns” about an indefinite ban.