THE use of emergency legislation by the Conservative Party to ban puberty blockers was lawful, the High Court has ruled.
In May, the UK Government brought in a ban on the prescription of puberty blockers for under-18s experiencing gender dysphoria in England, Wales and Scotland.
The drugs are used to delay the onset of puberty and are utilised in other countries as a means to give young people more time to consider their gender identity.
They are also used legally in the UK for conditions such as precocious puberty.
The ban was due to last from June 3 to September 3 and applied within both the NHS and to private healthcare providers.
The Labour Government has since indicated that it is considering making the ban permanent.
However, campaign group TransActual alongside a young person who cannot be named sought to challenge the Tories’ use of emergency legislation to enforce the banning order.
At a hearing at the High Court in London earlier this month, lawyers for the group argued that the actions of the UK Government were unlawful.
But on Monday Justice Lang ruled that the legislation was lawful and said courts should be “slow to interfere” on the issue.
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.”
It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting faced criticism for his fulsome support of the Cass Review despite criticism from academics at Yale Law School, who described the report on transgender healthcare for young people provided by the NHS in England as being “rife with misapplications of the scientific method.”
