The joint committee on the government’s draft Conversion Practices Bill is expected to issue a call for written evidence soon.
Everyone agrees that abuse should never be lawful, but this bill goes much further than this and puts ordinary family life at risk of criminalisation:
A mother who tells her 11-year-old daughter who identifies as “non-binary”, that she’s still female and that her breasts are going to start to develop and that she will have periods
A father who throws out testosterone and syringes that his trans-identifying teenage daughter has bought on the black market
A grandparent, uncle, aunt or sibling who won’t change the name and pronouns they use for a child who says they’re trans
A teacher who tells a male pupil who identifies as a girl that he mustn’t use the girls’ toilets and changing rooms.
A guide to the draft Conversion Practices Bill.
Parliamentary committees welcome evidence from anyone who can write about the topic in a meaningful way.
You might be a parent, teacher, therapist or clinician, social worker, lawyer, police officer, youth worker, scout leader or other volunteer. Perhaps you have experience from your own life.
What to write
You can start writing your submission before the call for evidence. You should tell the committee that talking is not abuse and highlight how the bill goes further than its stated aims.
Write about specific problems with the bill from your perspective. For example:
The impact it will have on you in your family life
The impact it will have on communities and groups you are a part of
The impact it will have on your ability to do your job, or as a volunteer or trustee of a charity
Experience that you have that can help the committee understand the harms of the bill
Evidence that you are aware of that can help the committee understand the harms of the bill.
Committees value clear and concise submissions, usually no more than 3,000 words. You should structure your evidence using numbered paragraphs and, where helpful, headings.
Use plain English. You can use generative AI to help you write your submission. If you do, you should say so in your submission and make sure that it fully expresses your own thoughts in words you are comfortable with.
Do not finalise and submit your evidence until the questions are published.
We will publish more guidance then. You should try to focus on the questions in the call for evidence. You do not need to answer them all, but you should state which ones you are addressing.
What happens to your evidence
If you submit evidence, the committee will read it and decide whether to accept it. If it is accepted, it becomes the committee’s property, and you should expect it to be published online (though this is the committee’s decision). It may be quoted in the committee’s report. Once published, your evidence stays public permanently.
Your name, or your organisation’s name, will usually be published. You can ask for your evidence to be published without your name (anonymous evidence) or not to be published at all (confidential evidence).
Publishing your evidence yourself
Your evidence must not have been published elsewhere before the committee decides to publish it. If you want to share your evidence publicly, you must wait until the committee has published it, given you permission to publish it or told you it has been rejected.