Clause 1 - Applications
Gender Recognition Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr David Lammy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Tottenham, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point, but I must emphasise that the panel will be concerned to ensure that the decision is permanent. He may appreciate that the standards in the Bill to some extent mirror the Harry Benjamin standards, which are the standards of acquired practice among the medical professionals who practise in this area. Those standards require three planks: the person has begun the process of social change, of acquiring a new gender, and of dressing accordingly; they have hormone treatment and other treatments; ultimately, they have surgical treatment if it is viable. That provides a degree of permanence, as much would be required to revert. It is therefore important that members of the panel have clear standards by which to guide them when they make assessments for the few people in that position.