Natasha Barnes successfully defends puberty blockers challenge
July 30, 2024
Natasha Barnes, door tenant at Exchange Chambers, has successfully argued that an emergency ban on puberty blockers was lawful.
Judgment was handed down today in the case of TransActual CIC and another v. the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and another [2024] EWHC 1937 (Admin), in which Natasha acted for the Defendants, the Secretary of State for Health and the Minister of Health for Northern Ireland.
The case concerned a challenge of secondary legislation that restricts via an emergency order the dispensing of puberty blockers to children and young persons suffering from gender dysphoria / incongruence, on the basis of prescriptions issued by private and online providers.
The impugned measures were adopted following the findings of the Cass Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People and consequent changes to the way in which puberty blockers could be accessed via NHS sources.
The Claimants argued that the procedure by which the secondary legislation was introduced was unfair and unlawful in that the Secretary of State could not, on the material before her at the time, have reasonably concluded that the criteria for an emergency order under section 62 of the Medicines Act 1968 had been satisfied. They argued further grounds of challenge based on an alleged failure to consult, and on Article 8 of the ECHR.
In a detailed judgment Mrs Justice Lang DBE dismissed the claim for judicial review on all three grounds. Having applied the heightened test of anxious scrutiny to the Secretary of State’s reasoning in making the decision to introduce the restrictions via an emergency order, Lang J found that the decision was rational. She agreed with the submissions made on behalf of the Defendants that:
“This decision required a complex and multi-factored predictive assessment, involving the application of clinical judgment and the weighing of competing risks and dangers, with which the Court should be slow to interfere.”
The Court further held that there had been no unlawful or unfair failure to consult and that the Article 8 ground could not succeed. The Judge refused the Claimants’ application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Natasha Barnes appeared as First Junior counsel. She was led by Julian Milford KC and instructed by the Government Legal Department.
Press coverage includes:
BBC News – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng3gz99nwo
The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/29/puberty-blockers-ban-tory-government-lawful-high-court-rules
Sky News – https://news.sky.com/story/emergency-ban-on-puberty-blockers-by-tory-government-was-lawful-high-court-rules-13186735
