Challenging the ban on puberty blockers

The Cass report has been widely criticised – by the trans community, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, by the Endocrine Society and by the American Academy of Pediatrics – for its conclusions. But even the Cass report contemplates continued use of puberty blockers to treat trans people.

The ban also bypassed the normal requirement for consulting a statutory committee to protect the public interest. And introducing it shortly before parliament rose meant that parliament could not scrutinise it either.

Its results are predictable – and terrifying.

We have heard from a well-placed whistleblower inside the NHS that, in the seven years before the decision in the Bell case (concerning the use of puberty blockers), one person using Gender Identity Development Services lost their life. The NHS reacted to that decision by introducing immediate, heavy restrictions to NHS services for young trans people. And it did not lift them when the decision was overturned in the Court of Appeal. We have been informed that in the three years following the decision 16 people lost their lives. We have contemporaneous evidence that this concern was raised at the time and the whistleblower believes senior management took a decision to suppress evidence of the deaths. We put these allegations to the Tavistock, we know it received them, but it has failed to respond.

This ban closes off the only route to treatment left open by the restrictions on treatment in the NHS. Atkins’s shockingly callous decision is likely to lead to further deaths of young trans people. We have received many emails from desperately worried parents.

Trans Actual CIC, working with Good Law Project, has instructed Russell-Cooke solicitors and senior barristers David Lock KC, Jason Coppel KC and Rob Harland to advise on a legal challenge to the regulations. So we’re taking the first formal step in urgent legal proceedings against Atkins.

If you’re in a position to help with this urgent case, you can do so here