UK conversion therapy ban could see offenders jailed or slapped with unlimited fine
The conversion therapy ban would bring heavy penalties for offenders (Image: Getty Images, stock)
Penalties for those found to be carrying out conversion therapy include up to five years in prison and unlimited fines, in the UK Government’s draft bill to ban the practice.
The new trans-inclusive bill would criminalise “abusive acts” aimed at changing someone’s sexual orientation or transgender identity. The Cabinet Office said the legislation will ensure LGBTQ+ people are “protected from physical and psychological abuse to change who they are”.
Under the proposals, two new criminal offences would be created: one for carrying out conversion practices “which cause serious harm, alarm or distress”, and another for encouraging or assisting such practices to take place outside of England and Wales, reports BBC News. The plans also include civil powers called Conversion Practice Protection Orders, intended to “pre-emptively protect those deemed to be at risk of abuse”.
The government says it is proposing the legislature because existing domestic abuse or coercive control laws do not address “the unique nature of abusive conversion practices”. It also says the draft proposals, which come eight years after the UK Government first committed to ending conversion practices, include exemptions for legitimate healthcare and set a “high threshold” for criminality so that “only acts that are abusive, seeking to change someone’s identity” would be covered.
What the draft bill would do
The proposals would bring a legal definition of conversion practices as conduct which “aims to change someone’s sexual orientation or transgender identity through abusive acts that seriously harm the victim”.
Minister for Equalities Olivia Bailey said: “Conversion practices are driven by the false belief that being LGBT+ is shameful and can be forcibly changed.” She added: “Legal loopholes have left LGBT+ people vulnerable to these harmful acts, which is why we must legislate.”
In the government’s 2018 UK-wide LGBT Survey, about 5% of 108,000 respondents said they had been offered some form of conversion therapy. Meanwhile, 2% said they had undergone it.
Plans to ban conversion practices were first promised in 2018, followed by U-turns and the resignation of the government’s LGBT+ Advisory Panel, amid debate about definitions and scope.
What the data shows
LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop identified more than 300 calls about conversion practices between 2022 and 2025, and researchers analysing a sample of 195 calls found reported examples including physical and sexual violence, attempts at forced marriages, and people being forcibly taken abroad. The charity said 158 cases involved coercive and controlling behaviour, 52 were religion-based, and 47 involved physical violence.
Dr Hilary Cass said it was important that legislation allowed healthcare professionals to work “without fear of litigation”, adding: “I am pleased to see that the government is bringing forward legislation which not only gives a clearer definition of what conversion practices are, compared to previous drafts, but also what they are not.” Mary-Ann Stephenson, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said it is “crucial” the legislation has “clear definitions and boundaries”.
Meanwhile, Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, argued any ban would “needlessly restrict freedom of speech and prayer”. She plans to launch a legal challenge if the ban becomes law, adding: “Genuinely abusive and harmful practices are already illegal in the UK. A new ban would target prayer and consensual conversations that many people find beneficial.”
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