HEALTH Secretary Victoria Atkins told NHS England today it must end the “culture of secrecy and ideology over evidence and safety” on treatment for gender dysphoria.

Ms Atkins’s intervention comes amid fallout from the Cass Review into gender care published earlier this week, which concluded that children have been let down by treatments, including use of puberty blockers and hormones with unknown effects, and that the sharp increase in numbers of people, especially girls, presenting with gender dysphoria should be considered in a context of growing instances of poor mental health and emotional distress among adolescents.

Dr Hilary Cass criticised adult gender clinics for refusing to co-operate with requests for data on patient outcomes for approximately 9,000 people who had moved from the now-closed GIDS children’s treatment centre into adult clinics, and Ms Atkins said their attitude was “disgraceful.”

NHS England has written to the adult clinics saying it requires them to “fully participate” with the data request, announced a review into their services and asked them to defer first appointment offers until after prospective patients’ 18th birthdays.

Following its earlier ban on prescribing puberty blockers, it is now reviewing the use of hormones.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he welcomed the Cass Review and Labour will take an “evidence-based” approach to gender-related healthcare.

But his attitude was criticised by left Labour group Momentum, which said the Cass Review had reached “a harmful conclusion of limiting access to gender-affirming care.”

LGBT advocacy group Stonewall however welcomed the review, saying: “We urge NHS England and policymakers to read and digest the full report and consider Dr Cass’s plea ‘to remember the children and young people trying to live their lives’.”