Summary

While the petitioning system is advisory only and the government is not required to take action on any given petition, this system can both require them to respond to specific inquiries and force them to schedule time to debate discrete issues within Parliament. If the Government has to spend a significant amount of time debating several different petitions, it is less time for them to spend on their legislating priorities. As such, I believe it is worthwhile to force them to discuss our issues openly over and over again and be held to account on them.

The current high level data on how these petitions are doing can be found here:

http://augeas.eu.pythonanywhere.com/

Credit to Augeus for this data visualisation and the script powering it.

Allow transgender people to self-identify their legal gender.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701159

Government response: Received

Parliamentary debate: Scheduled for the 19th May

Synopsis:

This seeks to allow self-id with no age limit and no diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

The Government has responded to it, but did so before the UKSC ruling. The response, in short, is that the GRA 2004 is fine the way it is and they will not be changing it.

Legally enshrine the right of adults to physically transition using NHS services

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/704793

Government response: Threshold reached, no response

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to bring primary legislation to enshrine the right to transition in law, including hormones and surgery for those over the age of 18. It is very specific that conversion therapy is excluded from this.

An independent evaluation of the Cass review on child gender services

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700217

Government response: Received

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to hold an independent review of the Cass Report as the existing report is being used to restrict medical care for trans children.

The Government has responded to this but their response is effectively “No”. They state that they don’t support the position of the petitioners and then discuss how great the Cass Review is. They point to the University of York review of the research (and link it) and then point to their 2 year plan for implementing all of the 32 recommendations from Cass in full. They also make a point towards the end of how they are about to launch a similar review into the adult gender service.

Lift restrictions on prescribing puberty blockers to trans children.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702538

Government response: Received

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to reverse the legislation banning puberty blockers for under 18s for treating gender dysphoria. It specifically calls out that banning these is likely a violation of Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Government has responded, but again the response is “No”. They spend a great deal of time discussing Cass and the Commission on Human Medicine’s report (it links both) and how those largely informed Streeting’s decision. They specifically call out that puberty blockers were a uniquely serious risk for trans kids based on those reports. They discuss their plans for the new children’s gender services and that referrals to these services can only be made specifically by NHS-commissioned (i.e. – not private) specialists who must explore a child’s co-existing mental health needs as part of the referral assessment.

Increase funding for transgender healthcare to reduce waiting times & train GPs

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/705870

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to get the wait times at the GICs down to 18 weeks by increasing their funding as well as training GPs in identifying and diagnosing gender dysphoria, prescribing HRT and monitoring bloodwork.

Stop “gender critical beliefs” being protected under the Equality Act

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/712741

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to remove protections for “gender critical” beliefs from the Equality Act as it makes it difficult to prevent discrimination against trans, non-binary, and gender diverse people. This is because “gender critical” beliefs are discriminatory against this minority and protecting them is at odds with the aims of the Act.

Review how the rights of trans athletes are respected in sports

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700219

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks a parliamentary review into trans participation in sports. It believes that the current policies in many sports associations unfairly target trans people for exclusion without any basis.

Do not stop transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/703861

Government response: Received

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to prevent the government from going ahead with its changes to the NHS constitution around mens and womens wards that would prevent trans people from accessing the appropriate one for their gender. Of note, this is a repeat of the petition here (https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/661601) from the previous government that did reach the response threshold. It was ended early because of the election and Labour’s refused to respond to it in the new government.

The Government response was issued before the UKSC ruling and discusses mostly that they’re looking to update the NHS Constitution and then pointing to the 2019 guidelines. They make a couple of references to “people should not be housed with those of the opposite sex on same sex wards”, which seems consistent with the positions of the Government after the UKSC ruling.

Review the issuing of hormone prescriptions for transgender individuals by GPs

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/704447

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This is looking to launch a review into why GPs aren’t issuing hormone prescriptions when directed to do so by the GICs.

Legally recognise Non-Binary as a gender

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700312

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to update the GRA to include non-binary people and allow recognition of them as a third gender.

Mandate that schools use trans students’ chosen names and pronouns.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700221

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to mandate that teachers and schools respect trans students’ chosen names and pronouns.

Ban all forms of conversion therapy

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700652

Government response: Not Reached Threshold

Parliamentary debate: Not Reached Threshold

Synopsis:

This seeks to ban all forms of conversion therapy.