Gay-to-straight Conversion Therapy

Geraint Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Sandra Osborne]

I, too, have reason to be grateful to those people.

I want to place on the record the fact that several hon. Members indicated that they wanted to attend this debate but had other commitments.

[Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)]

As my hon. Friend was so kind as to mention my Bill, does she agree that our joint ambition to get rid of gay-to-straight conversion therapy needs to be embraced in a regulatory context so that all psychotherapists are regulated, which they are not at present?

[Sandra Osborne]

I agree, and I will go into that further. Conversion or reparative therapy is the attempt by individuals, often posing as professionals, to alter the sexuality of lesbian, gay or bisexual patients. Virtually every major national and international professional organisation has condemned the practice as ineffective and potentially extremely harmful to patients.

--- Later in debate ---

[Geraint Davies]

Is the Minister aware that the number of people who go to psychotherapists has tripled under this Government to 1 million? Given that number and given that we have heard evidence about people being referred by GPs, is it not now high time for regulation to stop abuse and potential abuse?

[Norman Lamb]

I will come to that. I do not think that the fact that numbers have increased can be blamed on this Government.

We are not aware that the NHS commissions this type of therapy. In my replies to correspondence, I have confirmed that the Department of Health does not recommend the use of conversion therapy—I have made clear today my personal view on that—and it is not a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended treatment. That is self-evident. Furthermore, the main national professional associations for psycho- therapy have declared that they regard conversion therapy as wrong.

In February 2010, the UK Council for Psychotherapy said:

“UKCP does not consider homosexuality or bisexuality, or transsexual and transgendered states, to be pathologies, mental disorders or indicative of developmental arrest. These are not symptoms to be treated by psychotherapists, in the sense of attempting to change or remove them.

It follows”—

this is very important—

“that no responsible psychotherapist will attempt to ‘convert’ a client from homosexuality to heterosexuality”.

Similarly, in September 2012, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy set out the following:

“The…Association…is dedicated to social diversity, equality and inclusivity of treatment without discrimination of any kind. BACP opposes any psychological treatment such as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality is a mental disorder, or based on the premise that the client/patient should change his/her sexuality.”

In January 2013, the British Psychological Society published a position statement that opposed any psychological, psychotherapeutic or counselling treatments or interventions that view same-sex sexual orientations as diagnosable illnesses. It declared:

“This includes freedom from harassment or discrimination in any sphere, and a right to protection from therapies that are potentially damaging”—

that point was made by hon. Members—

“particularly those that purport to change or ‘convert’ sexual orientation.”

This issue is clearly causing a great deal of concern in the House, and rightly so. The hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, as well as sponsoring this important debate, tabled an early-day motion in June. It called on the Government to take steps to ban gay conversion therapy and to investigate NHS links to conversion therapists. Several hon. Members present have referred to that motion and put their names to it.

The hon. Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies) tabled a second early-day motion, calling on the Government to regulate counsellors and psychotherapists. There have also been a number of parliamentary questions on the issue. As hon. Members will know, the hon. Member for Swansea West has also introduced a private Member’s Bill seeking regulation of therapists. That is scheduled for Second Reading this Friday.

The Government have already said that there are no plans at this stage to introduce statutory regulation of psychotherapists. We do not believe that regulation would necessarily prevent this type of counselling in any case, as it would not depend on the type of therapy offered.

The Command Paper entitled “Enabling Excellence: Autonomy and Accountability for Healthcare Workers, Social Workers and Social Care Workers”, which we published in February 2011, sets out the Government’s vision for the future of work force regulation. That paper makes clear our continuing view that, although statutory regulation is sometimes necessary, it is not always the most proportionate or effective means of assuring the safe and effective care of patients or social care service users. That is why we provided powers to the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The Professional Standards Authority oversees the work of the health care profession regulators, including the Health and Care Professions Council. Those powers facilitated the establishment of voluntary registers for unregulated health care professionals and health care workers in the UK, social care workers in England and certain students.

The accredited voluntary registration scheme to which I am referring is not a form of regulation, nor is the PSA a regulator. To be accredited, organisations must provide evidence to the PSA that they are well run and they require registrants to meet high standards of personal behaviour, technical competence and, where relevant, business practice, but the scheme does not endorse any particular therapy as effective and it makes it clear that accreditation does not imply that it has done so. However, organisations seeking to be accredited can set their own rules about what therapies their members can or cannot offer.

As accredited voluntary registration appears to be gaining momentum and is proportionate to the risk, we believe that statutory regulation would not be appropriate and the costs to registrants or the taxpayer could not be justified. This is not to say that we are ruling out statutory regulation for this group for ever. We will continue to assess the need for it. I give an absolute assurance about that.

This is not to say that lesbians, gay men and bisexual people cannot seek counselling or therapy because they are distressed about a particular aspect of their sexuality—that is very important—or that a therapist should not try to help their patient with whatever is causing them distress, which may involve helping them to come to terms with their sexuality, family arguments over their sexuality, or hostility from other people. Supporting people through aspects of their lives that are difficult or challenging is a large part of what therapists do. I think that my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Stephen Gilbert) made that point in his intervention.

We want to minimise the risk that lesbians, gay men and bisexual people who seek counselling about their sexuality will face therapists attempting to change their sexual orientation because the therapist considers that being gay is wrong. That, of course, is completely unacceptable. That is why Department of Health officials last week met representatives from the UK Council for Psychotherapy to discuss a way forward on this important and sensitive issue. Officials will work in partnership with the council in the following ways.

First, the UK Council for Psychotherapy has agreed to draft, in consultation with the other relevant professional bodies, a public statement on conversion therapy that provides information and outlines the views held by those organisations. That is incredibly important. Once produced, that statement will be widely publicised and placed on relevant websites to ensure that individuals seeking a counsellor or therapist will be aware of those bodies’ views on gay conversion therapy.

Secondly, the Department of Health will host a round-table event in the spring to which it will invite relevant individuals and organisations in order to discuss ways to achieve greater quality and consistency across the profession in general, as well as on this specific issue. Thirdly, and subject to the progress of the private Member’s Bill, the Department will consider writing to statutory regulators, setting out key principles, to be agreed with the professional bodies.

In addition, although we are not aware of such therapies being commissioned by the NHS, my officials will explore with NHS England what actions it can take to ensure that clinical commissioning groups are not commissioning them locally. That is one of the issues that I am happy to discuss with hon. Members. I totally agree that it is not something that public money should have anything to do with.

I hope that I have assured those who have spoken passionately and persuasively in today’s debate that the Government are listening and taking action. I repeat my offer to meet hon. Members. We have a lot to be proud of. The UK is once again recognised as No. 1 in Europe on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality by the International Lesbian and Gay Association, and we continue to make great strides forward on equality. I hope that that reassures hon. Members both that this Government are strongly committed to advancing lesbian, gay and bisexual equality and that we are taking the issue of gay conversion therapy extremely seriously.