Oral evidence before the joint committee, 29th October 2026
On Thursday 29th October the joint committee of MPs and peers examining the draft Conversion Practices Bill held its first evidence session. There were two panels of three witnesses. The first panel – Stephen Kiely of Stonewall, Kai O’Doherty of Galop and Professor Ilias Trispiotis of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition – made the case for the bill. Helen Joyce, representing Sex Matters, was on the second panel, alongside Dennis Kavanagh of the Gay Men’s Network and Dermot Kehoe of LGB Alliance.
Sitting listening in the committee room, what most struck me was how little energy and evidence the proponents of the proposed ban brought to the table, compared with our side’s clear explanations of the harms it would do to parents and vulnerable children.
Olivia Bailey MP, the bill’s architect, who inexplicably now sits on the scrutiny committee, looked by turn deflated and furious as our panel challenged the government’s reassurances that the bill includes many safeguards that would ensure it caught only genuine abusers, not ordinary parents.
Trispiotis told the committee that by his reading the bill covers seeking to persuade someone not to adopt a transgender identity, as well as seeking to change one they already have. That means a parent who tells their child “I don’t think you’re a boy” is defined as committing a conversion practice.
Naz Shah MP asked directly whether a parent who did not affirm a child could be caught. Trispiotis retreated to generalities, saying it was “heavily contextual” and that we could trust the Crown Prosecution Service to be careful.
During the second hour, Helen explained why the bill’s “abuse” threshold doesn’t fit family life. It is modelled on the offence of coercive control, which was written for adults. As she put it: “If my husband takes my phone away from me because he doesn’t want me contacting people, that’s coercive control. If I do that to my child, that may be responsible parenting.”
Kavanagh told the committee that “abusive” has no settled meaning in criminal law and that nothing in the bill requires the prosecution to show that a parent intended harm. Kehoe pointed out that Section 28 chilled a generation without a single prosecution: often, the main effect of a law isn’t that perpetrators are punished, but what people stop doing.
We are going to send written evidence to the committee. Please get ready to send in your own, particularly if you have “lived experience” as a parent or family member, detransitioner, teacher, therapist or anyone else who works or volunteers with children.
Find out more
A guide to the draft Conversion Practices Bill
Media coverage
Labour backlash over conversion therapy ban
Cameron Henderson for The Telegraph wrote that a former Labour health minister has raised “serious concerns” about the Conversion Practices Bill, and mentioned our letter to Bridget Phillipson which warned of a chilling effect on ordinary, responsible parents, who risk...
Cameron Henderson • The Telegraph
Banning conversion practices: lessons
from Australia
Helen Joyce speaks to Tess Hackett, an Australian mother whose trans-identifying daughter is estranged from her. Tess set up Australia’s first support group for parents of children who identify as trans, now a nationwide network she still runs.
She describes life under conversion-practices bans in Australian states: detransitioners in Victoria having to go interstate for medical help; psychologists turning away teenagers; and parents too scared to seek help.
As the UK’s draft Conversion Practices Bill goes through pre-legislative scrutiny, this is a look at what such laws mean in practice.
Conversion Practices Bill: who is at risk
of criminalisation?
The parliamentary committee on the draft Conversion Practices Bill has issued its call for evidence, and Sex Matters, together with LGB Alliance and the Gay Men’s Network, is due to give oral evidence on Thursday 29th October. We have published...
26th October 2026
Next week
Sex Matters is going to court on 3rd and 4th November 2026 to argue our case about the Hampstead Ponds.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to make this case possible. There is still time to donate if you haven’t already.
If you are planning to come to the hearing (from 10am on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in London) please let us know.
You can also request online access by emailing administrativecourtoffice.generaloffice@justice.gov.uk, quoting case number AC-2025-LON-002809, and following the instructions in Annex 7 of this guide.
Media coverage
Hampstead ponds trans policy ‘only scrapped after EHRC warning’
“The women of London deserve transparency, particularly when their dignity and privacy is at risk.” - Maya Forstater
Sanchez Manning • The Times
In other news
NHS Fife revelations ‘highly relevant’ to future Sandie Peggie case
“NHS Fife’s behaviour towards Sandie Peggie and to Sex Matters last year was extraordinary, starting with blustering accusations linking us to threats of violence which were gradually and clumsily withdrawn, without any apology or explanation.” - Maya Forstater
Justin Bowie • The Courier
Peggie lawyers seek NHS Fife emails released to The Herald
“As soon as NHS Fife took the decision to allow a male doctor to pose as a woman and to force other staff to pretend he was a woman it was plunged into a web of deception and opacity.” - Maya Forstater
Andrew Learmonth • The Herald Scotland
Petition to ban Harry Potter Christmas lights | Fiona McAnena on GB News
Dawn Neesom • GB News
Male Oxford University tutor still wearing prosthetic breasts to work
“There’s no evidence that this man identifies as a woman, but transgender demands muddy the water so that normal standards of behaviour are undermined.” - Fiona McAnena
Janet Murray • [Un]Captured
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