A secular sexual rights group challenged the reliability of evidence supporting UK Government plans for a ban on LGBT conversion practices, claiming the underlying data fails to justify the creation of a new criminal law.
Parents and church pastors in the United Kingdom could face court trials, hefty fines, and prison time under the proposed ban on practices aimed at changing sexual orientation or identity, as previously reported by Christian Daily International.
The Labour government published the Conversion Practices Draft Bill on June 25, aiming to criminalize abusive practices intended to change or suppress sexual orientation or transgender identity. The legislation, which follows similar proposals introduced by the previous Conservative government, aims to introduce civil protection orders alongside criminal penalties to protect vulnerable individuals.
Under the draft text, the law would apply to any conduct directed at people with the explicit intention of changing or suppressing their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Sex Matters, a U.K.-based human rights charity that campaigns for clarity on sex in law, policy, and language, challenged the evidence used by the government for the planned law.
"I am satisfied that, given the available evidence, it represents a reasonable view of the likely costs, benefits and impact of the leading options," Minister for Equalities Olivia Bailey said after signing the impact assessment.
Bailey also told the House of Commons that her decision relied on evidence regarding the prevalence and types of conversion practice abuse in the UK. She highlighted a new report titled "Still not Illegal: Evidence of modern-day conversion practices" by LGBT anti-violence charity Galop, which she said revealed hundreds of case studies alleging appalling abuse happening right now across the country.
However, Sex Matters pointed out that the report only contained a few dozen brief accounts.
"Most describe experiences that should not concern criminal law at all, such as family disagreements and 'misgendering,'" Sex Matters said in an online statement challenging the methodology of the research. "A handful concern assault and rape, which are already crimes. Overall it contains analysis of fewer than 200 cases, which are described in minimal detail."
The charity noted that both Bailey and Galop failed to mention that the evidence appeared to include the entirety of calls received by the government’s national conversion-therapy helpline. Galop received £360,000 ($479,966 USD) over three years to run the service, describing it at the time as a vital lifeline for the community. The funding followed a competitive bidding process managed by the Cabinet Office.
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) initially anticipated around 10,000 calls each year, based on a 2018 National LGBT Survey where 2% of respondents said they had undergone conversion therapy and 5% said they had been offered it.
"But the Galop report’s findings seem to suggest that only a handful of people – in single figures each year – called to report 'conversion therapy,'" Sex Matters said.
Sex Matters also stated that the Cabinet Office’s impact assessment made no mention of the three-year helpline data. When the charity requested performance and outcomes data from the GEO in 2023, the government office refused to disclose the details, claiming it would prejudice Galop’s commercial interests.
According to Sex Matters, the figures in the Galop report indirectly reveal that only a handful of people ever called the helpline to report actual conversion practices. Instead of reflecting on the evidence from an almost silent helpline, the government doubled down on the idea that tens of thousands of people experience conversion therapy annually.
The group also challenged a survey commissioned by the LGBT rights charity Stonewall and conducted by Opinium Research in early 2024. The survey involved interviewing 2,000 adults online who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
"It came up with a ludicrous figure of 10% for the proportion of LGBTQ+ people in the UK who have undergone an exorcism, and 2% for the proportion who had undergone an exorcism in the previous year alone," Sex Matters stated, questioning the demographic weighting of the study.
The charity referenced calculations by mathematician Dr. John Armstrong, who pointed out that this percentage would imply that clergymen in the UK perform approximately 24,600 gay exorcisms a year. For comparison, the total number of religious weddings in England and Wales in 2022 was 41,915, making the statistical claim highly improbable.
Furthermore, Sex Matters questioned the government’s interpretation of data from the Stonewall survey regarding allegations of conversion practice abuse.
"The government plucks from the Stonewall survey the number who said they had been told to ingest 'purifying' substances (11% ever and 2% in the past year) or who said they had been given 'pseudo-scientific counselling' to try to change their sexual orientation or gender identity (12% ever and 2% in the past year)," Sex Matters said.
"It adds these figures and multiplies the sum by the number of LGB or T people found in the most recent census to conclude that 'approximately 75,000 to 93,000 people each year in England and Wales experience conversion practices based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.'"
Using those figures alongside an American study on depression risks, the government’s impact assessment calculated that a ban would prevent 28,486 to 35,268 cases of depression annually, saving the country around £700 million over 10 years. The government estimated the ban would cost £45 million ($60 million USD) to implement, including providing 45 minutes of education about the new law for public sector workers, including police officers, doctors, nurses, and social workers.
"These figures are fantastical," Sex Matters said.
The charity noted that Galop released its research report claiming to show the stark reality of modern-day conversion practices on the exact same day that the government published its draft bill. The Galop report, funded by UK Research and Innovation through Leeds University, examined records of 13,500 Galop clients between November 2022 and November 2025. This period coincided with the operation of the federally funded helpline, which also received a contribution of £30,000 per year from the Welsh government.
The principal investigator for the study, Professor Ilias Trispiotis, sits on the steering group of the Ban Conversion Practices coalition.
Researchers found 371 potential cases among the client base, but judged only 195 to have sufficient depth and detail to use as evidence. Only 29 of those cases came through any of Galop's helplines, with most originating from official referrals for domestic abuse, housing, or hate crimes.
According to Sex Matters, 76% of the identified cases occurred within families, mostly involving actions by parents toward their often adult children. The charity noted that no examples of historical aversion therapy involving electric shocks or physical mistreatment appeared in the study.
"Cases such as 'intentional refusal to use a chosen name or pronouns' or suggesting that healing trauma could lead to a client no longer being transgender are not abuse at all, but are rather accounts of parents or therapists not accepting the idea of 'gender identity,'" Sex Matters said.
"The Stonewall survey and the Galop cases are the best evidence the government has of conversion practices in the UK which merit a new criminal law. Even added together, they are remarkably weak."
