Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce waiting lists for initial appointments at (1) Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic, and (2) other gender identity clinics in England.

The Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic is reducing waiting lists for initial appointments by recruiting and training more staff. This has increased the number of initial assessments since November 2022, and the service expects to further increase capacity incrementally from April this year.

NHS England has increased investment in these services by approximately 130% over the past five years, as well as the number of Gender Dysphoria Clinics in England from seven to 12 with the rollout of five new adult gender pilot clinics since July 2020. These pilots will be evaluated over the next two years to determine how they can be expanded nationally.