UK Government to Introduce Draft Bill Criminalizing Abusive Conversion Practices

The UK government will lay the draft Conversion Practices Bill before Parliament on 25 June 2026, BBC News reported. The legislation creates two new criminal offences: one for carrying out conversion practices that cause serious harm, alarm or distress, and another for encouraging or assisting such practices outside England and Wales.

Conviction carries a maximum prison sentence of five years and an unlimited fine.

The bill also introduces Conversion Practice Protection Orders as civil powers to protect individuals at risk. The legal definition covers conduct that aims to change someone's sexual orientation or transgender identity through abusive acts that seriously harm the victim.

Minister for Equalities Olivia Bailey said conversion practices are driven by the false belief that being LGBT+ is shameful and can be forcibly changed, adding that legal loopholes have left LGBT+ people vulnerable.

A 2018 UK-wide LGBT Survey with 108,000 responses found that 5% of respondents had been offered some form of conversion therapy and 2% had undergone it. Galop, an anti-LGBT abuse charity, identified more than 300 calls about conversion practices between 2022 and 2025.

In a sample of 195 calls, 132 were reported as ongoing or recent, 123 were initiated by parents, 158 involved coercive and controlling behaviour, 52 involved religion-based practices, and 47 involved physical violence.

The government said existing domestic abuse or coercive control laws do not address the unique nature of abusive conversion practices. The BBC understands that pre-legislative scrutiny will begin in the coming weeks and last around three months.