Gillick competence and gender identity

Bell and Another v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin)

Two recent cases have raised interesting questions about whether children are competent to consent to puberty blocking treatment. The first of these cases, Bell and Another v The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin), involved a judicial review of the practice of the defendant, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which ran a Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) prescribing puberty-suppressing drugs to people under the age of 18 who experience gender dysphoria. The second case, AB v CD and Others [2021] EWHC 741 (Fam); [2021] Med LR 365, filled a gap left by the decision in the first case concerning the question as to whether the administration of puberty blockers to children under the age of 16 years based on both parental consent and clinical consent required oversight by a court.