Sinn Fein and Alliance decline to say why Northern Ireland Assembly Education Committee 'exempt' from duty to report potentially fraudulent supply of puberty blockers to children
Sinn Fein and Alliance have declined to say why the Stormont Education Committee is apparently exempt from reporting concerns about the potentially illegal supply of drugs to children.
The silence from the two parties comes after the Stormont Education Committee refused to examine documents offered by an MLA which apparently advise parents how to fraudulently procure controlled drugs (puberty blockers) for children.
The Cass Report – commissioned by the NHS in 2020 – led to a ban on puberty blockers being given to children under 18 in the UK.
It emerged during the committee hearing on Wednesday that the Rainbow Project website was signposting parents to an external website - GenderGP- which advises them how to bypass normal prescription laws in order to acquire puberty blockers for their children, if they run out.
DUP MLAs Peter Martin and David Brooks argued that GenderGP was acting illegally and should be reported to the authorities.
However, Alliance MLAs Nick Mathison (chair) and Michelle Guy, and Sinn Fein MLAs Pat Sheehan (deputy chair) and Danny Baker, refused the DUP offer to examine the alleged criminal guidance – and instead agreed it was up to the DUP to report it to the authorities.
The News Letter supplied a summary of the committee debate to the Safeguarding Board of Northern Ireland (SBNI) today and asked if the Education Committee was correct to decide it had no responsibility to raise such allegations with the authorities?
The SBNI responded: "Any child safeguarding concerns should be reported to the local Health and Social Care Trust or if there is suspicion that an offence is occurring or has occurred then it should be reported to the PSNI.
"The relevant legislation is Section 5 of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967, which places a duty on everyone – including organisations or groups - to report to the police, information they may have about the commission of a relevant offence."
The News Letter asked the Alliance Party and committee chairman Nick Jamison MLA - and Sinn Fein - why the education committee in this case falls outside of this child safeguarding obligations, as laid out by SBNI?
Neither party – nor the committee chairman - offered any response.
It also emerged today that the Rainbow Project has removed the link to GenderGP from its website. Asked why, the Rainbow Project failed to offer any response.
The General Medical Council (GMC) told the News Letter today that two British doctors featuring prominently on the Singapore-owned GenderGP website are no longer registered as doctors with it.
The GMC told the News Letter that Helen Webberley - the founder of GenderGP - is no longer registered, while Michael Webberley, who also features prominently on the website, was struck off following a tribunal at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.
The GMC also said it issued guidance to UK doctors in August that it was no longer legal to prescribe puberty blockers to children under 18, unless they were already on an approved NHS prescription.
In May the BBC reported a High Court finding that a 15-year-old child was prescribed dangerous levels of hormones by an unregulated online clinic - GenderGP - without speaking to a doctor. GenderGP did not participate in the court hearing.