High Court rules Tory ban on puberty blockers using emergency legislation WAS lawful

The treatment, which suppresses the natural production of sex hormones to delay puberty, has proved controversial with Health Secretary Wes Streeting later saying he was “treading cautiously” in his decision amid “lots of fear and anxiety”.

At a hearing today, the High Court in London heard the secondary legislation prevents the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricts NHS provision to within clinical trials.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland defended the claim and said the case should be dismissed.

In a ruling today, Justice Lang dismissed the challenges which 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 that it might be made permanent by new Labour ministers.

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

Reacting to today's ruling, the Health Secretary said: “I welcome the court’s decision today. Children’s healthcare must be evidence-led.

“Dr Cass’s review found there was insufficient evidence that puberty blockers are safe and effective for children with gender dysphoria and gender incongruence. We must therefore act cautiously and with care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people.

“I am working with NHS England to improve children’s gender identity services, and to setting up a clinical trial to establish the evidence on puberty blockers. I want trans people in our country to feel safe, accepted, and able to live with freedom and dignity.”

The legislation came after the publication of the long-awaited Cass Review by Dr Hilary Cass into children’s gender services in the NHS, which said children have been let down by a lack of research and evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones.

Jason Coppel KC, for the group and young person, previously told the court that Victoria Atkins had “acted on the basis of her personal views about the conclusions of the Cass Review."

He also said there was no ministerial submission setting out her reasoning about why puberty blockers were considered a "serious danger to health" – the standard needed for the emergency legislation to be used.

The judge said: “In my judgment, the Cass Review’s findings about the very substantial risks and very narrow benefits associated with the use of puberty blockers, and the recommendation that in future the NHS prescribing of puberty blockers to children and young people should only take place in a clinical trial, and not routinely, amounted to powerful scientific evidence in support of restrictions on the supply of puberty blockers on the grounds that they were potentially harmful.

The judge continued: "Although the Cass Review did not state in terms that puberty blockers cause ‘a serious danger to health’, that was not the question that the Cass Review was asked to consider.

"That was a matter for the defendants to determine on all the evidence before them. It would have been premature to do so before the final report had been published."