It is “simply not possible” for pharmacists to establish whether prescriptions for puberty suppressing hormones have been issued in compliance with current UK guidance, health minister Karin Smyth has said. 

Defending the Labour Government’s decision to uphold the emergency ban introduced by former health secretary Victoria Atkins, Ms Smyth said her party is “committed to implementing the recommendations of the Cass review” and ensuring that puberty blockers are “only considered within a much broader needs assessment” within the context of a clinical trial.

On May 29 the Department of Health and Social Care announced an emergency ban blocking the supply of puberty suppressing hormones to new patients by private UK prescribers and prescribers based in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. This followed NHS England’s decision to end the routine prescribing of these medicines. 

In support of the ban on overseas prescriptions – which was upheld by a high court judge today following a legal challenge – Ms Smyth said it would not be practical to expect UK pharmacists to police the issue, commenting: “It is simply not possible for pharmacists to check whether prescriptions issued from overseas registered prescribers have been issued in a similarly safe and effective way. 

“We know that some overseas providers who advertise their services do not follow this approach.”

Ms Smyth, the MP for Bristol South and minister of state for secondary care, was writing in response to fellow Labour MP Cat Smith who asked whether the Department of Health and Social Care has compared to UK’s stance on puberty blockers to the approaches adopted elsewhere in Europe.  

Labour is “reforming transgender care for young people in this country based on the best possible evidence,” she said, citing the Cass review as “one of the most comprehensive reviews of gender identity services for children and young people to date worldwide”.