PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Gender Dysphoria: Clinics (2 October 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 22 September 2020 Government response to its consultation on how to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004, what steps the Government plans to take to radically reduce the waiting times for people to access gender clinics.

Asked by:
Marsha De Cordova (Labour)

Healthcare for transgender people did not fall within the scope of consultation on how to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

In 2018 a new service specification was developed for gender identity clinics, this new specification concluded that access to specialist interventions by trained healthcare professionals was needed within primary care and other local health settings. As a result, three new clinics were announced earlier this year. The clinics are based in London, Manchester, and Cheshire and Merseyside. The first of these services began in July 2020 in London and they will be evaluated as pilots over a period of up to three years to determine how they could be expanded nationally.

Access to these new services will initially be given to people who are already on a waiting list at an established Gender Dysphoria Clinic and it is expected that the three new services will reduce the current national waiting list for gender services.

Answered by:
Jo Churchill (Conservative)
10 November 2020