Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, banned the use of puberty blockers following a consultation which the government claims did the following:

"The consultation engaged widely, including groups that represent the LGBT+ community and those representing patients and service users and their families, clinicians, pharmacists, charities, regulators and experts.

The Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, has also personally engaged with a range of stakeholders on this issue, including with children and young people, and their families, with lived experience of gender incongruence.

This government will continue to engage with, and listen to, the trans community."

I would like all available communications that show:

1) What the Health Secretary discussed with people with lived experience of gender incongruence.

2) How many families were consulted and what those families provided as evidence for their lived experience.

3) Who were the groups who represented families and service users and what meeting minutes are available between these groups and the Health Secretary?

4) What evidence was used to determine puberty blockers were safe for some individuals, but not for others?

5) What percentage of those consulted disagreed with the ban of puberty blockers for trans youth and who did Wes Streeting consult with about disregarding the majority of consultation responses?

6) All communications Wes Streeting had with the trans groups or community members.

Yours faithfully,

Finn Clark

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

My FOIA request is now long overdue a response. You confirmed receipt on the 20th December and the legal requirement is to respond to my request within 20 days.

You have given no indication of why the response is delayed. I expect a realistic timeframe for when the information I have requested will be available or a detailed explanation for why you won't provide the information I've requested.

I am now requesting an internal review of why my request hasn't been dealt with within the specified timeframe.

Yours faithfully,

Finn Clark

Dear Department of Health and Social Care,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

This was a public consultation so the information I have requested is in the public interest. If the DHSC consulted with all the people listed in my original request, then it should be transparent while protecting any information that would need to be anonymised.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Health and Social Care's handling of my FOI request 'Puberty blocker ban evidence'.

I wrote a complaint to the ICO about the length of time you have taken to respond to this request. It’s beyond the initial 20 days and well beyond a reasonable 40 days if you are considering public interest. You haven’t provided me with a timeline for when to expect the information and have only stated that you won’t conduct an internal review until you’ve submitted a response. Considering you still haven’t provided a proper response to a request made in December 2024 and the ICO asked you to update within 10 working days which ends on the 19th March, I expect an internal review on what is taking so long and why you’ve been unable to even provide an estimate for when any of this information will be available or an explanation as to why it can’t be released. The FOI have said if you didn’t respond within the 10 working days, you would be in breach of the Act.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

Finn Clark