Ending conversion practices in Scotland - consultation analysis: SG response

Introduction

Background

1. The Scottish Government has committed since 2021 to ban conversion practices^[1] that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. This follows a growing number of over twenty countries who have passed legislation to address harmful conversion practices.

2. In 2022 the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice (EHRCJ) Committee published its report on Petition PE1817: End Conversion Therapy which concluded that conversion practices should be banned and that current legislation in Scotland is insufficient. Following this, the Scottish Government committed to exploring options to ban conversion practices, which aim to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

3. In October 2022, the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Ending Conversion Practices established by the Scottish Government published its report and recommendations for the Scottish Government to take action. This included recommendations to criminalise the performing, offering and promoting of conversion practices, and to also criminalise referring people for such services and removing them from Scotland for the purposes of performing conversion practices.

4. In January 2024, the Scottish Government published its public consultation on ‘Ending conversion practices in Scotland’.

Consultation and analysis of responses

5. The public consultation outlining the Scottish Government’s proposals for legislation on ending conversion practices ran from 9 January 2024 until 2 April 2024, receiving over 5,800 responses.

6. Noting the range of views and volume of responses, the Scottish Government chose an external contractor to analyse responses. The full report which analysis these consultation responses can be found here.

7. At the same time as publishing this official response and the analysis report, we have also published all responses to the consultation where permission was given to do so. These can be found on Citizen Space.

8. Limited redactions have been applied to a small number of responses to remove swearwords and potentially defamatory content. However, to maintain the integrity of the consultation, redactions have not been applied to responses which contain language or views which may be considered offensive. As a result, reader discretion is advised as many responses are strongly worded and contain content, including derogatory statements and offensive language, which some are likely to find upsetting. Identifying personal data was also removed from responses and a decision was taken to redact respondent surnames due to the sensitivity of the debate surrounding this topic.

9. We wish to be clear that in publishing responses as written, the Scottish Government does not support or condone the use of hateful language or derogatory or offensive terminology towards any minority groups.

10. While this document responds to the feedback we received on many aspects of our proposals, it would not be possible to respond to every single point raised by respondents.

11. Through analysis of responses and extensive engagement with stakeholders, we recognise that there are specific parts of our proposals where it would be helpful to reassert our intentions and rationale, and also to share how we are considering feedback to further develop and refine our proposals. These are addressed within this document.

Next steps

12. As detailed in our 2025-2026 Programme for Government, published in May 2025, the Scottish Government remains committed to ending conversion practices in Scotland. We will continue to engage with the UK Government in relation to a Bill that would cover England, Wales and Scotland. However, if this approach cannot be agreed, then we commit to publishing our own Bill in Year 1 of the next Parliamentary session.

13. On this basis, this response aims to clarify some issues relating to the proposals as set out in the consultation, noting that we continue to develop our approach to providing legal protection from conversion practices. It also acknowledges the feedback received which we are carefully considering as we continue to develop legislation for Scotland, should a UK-wide approach not be possible.