Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned indefinitely across the UK except for use in clinical trials, Labour has announced.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said that after receiving advice from medical experts, he would make existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty blockers indefinite.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) had published independent expert advice that there was “currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children”.
Streeting said the commission had recommended indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people.
The NHS announced in March that children would no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, with the then Conservative government saying this would help ensure care was based on evidence and was in the “best interests of the child”.
In May, that government introduced a ban on puberty blockers through emergency legislation, preventing the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricting NHS provision to within clinical trials.
A challenge to that ruling, brought by campaigners who said they were concerned for the safety and welfare of young trans people in the UK, failed in July when the high court ruled that the ban was lawful.
Dr Hilary Cass, who wrote the Cass review into children’s gender care and published her final report in April, described puberty blockers as “powerful drugs with unproven benefits and significant risks”.
She said: “That is why I recommended that they should only be prescribed following a multi-disciplinary assessment and within a research protocol. I support the government’s decision to continue restrictions on the dispensing of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria outside the NHS where these essential safeguards are not being provided.”
Announcing the indefinite ban in the Commons on Wednesday, Streeting insisted he was “determined” to improve healthcare for trans people.
While health is a devolved matter, the ban applies across the UK, he said, after the decision was taken in consultation with the Scottish and Welsh governments, and in agreement with the Northern Ireland government.
Streeting acknowledged that the decision would not be welcomed by everyone but sought to reassure young trans people. He had met many of them since taking up his post in July, he said, and listened to their concerns, fears and anxieties.
In a message directly to them, and referencing having come out as gay, he said: “I know it’s not easy being a trans kid in our country today, the trans community is at the wrong end of all of the statistics for mental ill health, self-harm and suicide.
“I can’t pretend to know what that’s like, but I do know what it’s like to feel you have to bury a secret about yourself, to be afraid of who you are, to be bullied for it and then to experience the liberating experience of coming out.
“I know it won’t feel like it based on the decisions I’m taking today, but I really do care about this and so does this government. I am determined to improve the quality of care and access to healthcare for all trans people.”
Decisions were being taken “based on the evidence and advice of clinicians, not politics or political pressure”, he added.
NHS England said the indefinite ban “closes a loophole that posed a risk to the safety of children and young people” through private provision.
The ban applies to new patients only, with NHS and private patients already receiving these medicines for gender dysphoria continuing to have access.
There are plans to set up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers next year and to recruit the first patients by spring. Streeting said the study would help “establish a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine”.
Lauren Stoner, the chief executive of Mermaids, a trans rights charity, said she was “deeply disappointed” by the indefinite ban on puberty blockers.
“The government is entirely disregarding the voices of trans youth, who made clear their deep opposition to the restriction of private prescriptions for puberty blockers during consultation,” she said.
Lara Brown, a senior research fellow at the Policy Exchange thinktank, said the ban was a “victory” for child safeguarding and evidence-based medicine.
“There remains a great deal more to be done to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review and to row back the tide of gender ideology in our institutions, but this is a brave and important call for which Wes Streeting should be commended,” she said.
