The Medicines (Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone Analogues) (Emergency Prohibition) (England, Wales and Scotland) Order 2024

Exception for private prescriptions: patients aged under 18

6.—(1) Article 3 does not apply to a sale or supply in pursuance of a private prescription, if—

(a) Condition A is met;

(b) if the private prescription is a prescription, rather than a direction, which is or purports to be in accordance with the requirements of regulation 217, 218, 219 or 219A of the 2012 Regulations(1) (which relate to requirements for paper and electronic prescriptions), Condition B is met;

(c) if the private prescription was issued on or after 3rd June 2024, Condition C is met; and

(d) unless the sale or supply is to or for a person who, on any occasion, started a course of treatment with a GnRH analogue before 3rd June 2024, Condition D is met.

(2) Condition A is that on the day the private prescription was issued, the patient in respect of whom it was issued was aged under 18.

(3) Condition B is that—

(a) the prescription has included within it the patient’s age and is annotated by the prescriber with “SLS”; or

(b) if the prescription was issued before 3rd June 2024, the person to whom the GnRH analogue is to be sold or supplied produces to the person selling or supplying the GnRH analogue a specified document, a UK birth certificate or a current national identity document that verifies, to the reasonable satisfaction of the person selling or supplying the GnRH analogue, the age and identity of the person to or for whom the GnRH analogue is to be sold or supplied.

(4) Condition C is that the private prescription was issued by an approved UK prescriber.

(5) Condition D is that the purpose for which the private prescription was issued is a purpose other than treatment for the purpose of puberty suppression in respect of gender dysphoria, gender incongruence or a combination of both.

(6) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(d), a person is treated as having started a course of treatment with a GnRH analogue if, in the six month period before 3rd June 2024, that person was issued with a NHS or private prescription for a GnRH analogue, whether or not the prescription has been dispensed or the prescribed GnRH analogue has been taken by that person before 3rd June 2024.

(7) For the purposes of paragraph (5), treatment is treatment for the purpose of puberty suppression in respect of gender dysphoria, gender incongruence or a combination or both if it is, viewed objectively, treatment for that purpose, as gender dysphoria and gender incongruence are ordinarily understood as part of medical practice in Great Britain.

(1)

Regulation 217 has been amended by S.I. 2013/1855, 2014/490, 2016/186, 2018/199 and 2019/775. Regulation 218 has been amended by S.I. 2014/490 and 1878, 2015/903 and 2019/775. Regulation 219 has been amended by S.I. 2015/903, 2016/696, 2019/775 and 2023/98. Regulation 219A was inserted by S.I. 2015/903 and amended by S.I. 2019/775.