Swinney: We must explore how conversion therapy ban sits with Cass Review

The Scottish Government must explore how the findings of the Cass Review on gender services for young people sits with its plans to ban conversion therapy, First Minister John Swinney has said.

Proposals to ban the practice are yet to be introduced at Holyrood, but a consultation on the issue closed in April.

The Cass Review, a review of gender services for young people in England, was published last month, leading to a pause in puberty blockers for new patients south of the border and in Scotland.

The head of the review, Dr Hilary Cass, told Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee that some mental health practitioners are “anxious” that offering support to someone questioning their gender identity could be caught under the new law.

“The anxiety that they might become the test case for that is making clinicians even more anxious about working in this area, and we do not want to do anything to frighten off professionals from working in it,” she told Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee last week.

“Walking that path is very difficult.”

She added: “I do not know how we get that balance right of protecting people from conversion therapy and not frightening therapists who are just doing their job by having an appropriate exploratory conversation with a young person.”

The consultation document published earlier this year, however, suggested the Scottish Government’s plans would protect “non-directive and ethical guidance and support to a person who might be questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity or experiencing conflict or distress, whether that is provided by a healthcare practitioner, a family member or a religious leader”.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, Mr Swinney repeated his support for a ban, but agreed the questions raised by Dr Cass were valid.

“I think that’s one of the questions that has to be explored, and I think Dr Cass made a very fair point in that respect,” he said.

“I think in all aspects of the work that we undertake in relation to these questions and other questions where clinicians are involved, we want clinicians to be able to give the best support to patients, so we have to listen to clinical opinion very carefully.”

The Government, he said, was “reflecting” on the consultation responses as well as the recommendations of the Cass Review, with a response on the latter expected before Holyrood’s summer recess.

Asked if he believed a transgender woman was a woman, Mr Swinney said: “I believe a woman is an adult female born as a woman and I also accept that transgender women are defined as women.”

The First Minister’s comments come as the Scottish Greens, former partners in the Scottish Government, pushed for a timetable for a “full and watertight ban” on conversion practices.

In a letter to Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, the party’s equalities spokeswoman Maggie Chapman said: “Everyone in Scotland deserves to live their lives free from marginalisation and discrimination, no-one should be made to feel less equal because of who they are or who they love.

“Banning conversion practices is a vital step forward in ending the ideology that LGBTQIA+ identities are somehow wrong and must be changed.

“It is vital that the Scottish Government continues to prioritise this legislation and brings forward a full and watertight ban.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government remains committed to ending conversion practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Our consultation on ending conversion practices closed last month and responses to the consultation are being analysed.”