At first this sounds promising (though an obvious understatement of risks) when the minister says:
‘I can understand why there will be some public concern about it, so I would like to reassure the House that I am working with NHS England to do a proper review of the research around this service and the ethics of it to establish a proper framework for consent, recognising that we are looking at treatments that may have long-term consequences.’
Then it sounds worryingly like it’s really all about shoving the issue of harm and ethics aside in favour of ‘well the kid consented’- even though we know kids can’t fully understand the full impact of choices like losing the capacity for normal adult sexual function and fertility - which only going through puberty will allow them to have.
‘Mrs Doyle-Price told Parliament, before losing her ministerial job in Boris Johnson’s new Cabinet: ‘It is important to recognise that, compared with services internationally, the service is very much at the conservative end of provision, which has led to it being criticised as far too conservative by some aspects of the lobby in favour of more services.
‘However, where we are dealing with children who have not reached the age of majority, and where some of the treatments they may go through may be irreversible, the whole issue of consent is clearly important.’
No, no, no- it can be never ethical to accept a child’s consent for a permanent change to their brain or body when we know a child can’t really understand what they are consenting to. why can’t the government just say this? Where are normal medical ethics and normal safeguarding for these kids? When did any of us agree that their rights could be chucked under the bus?
But still the fact that ethics and the rapidly growing patient numbers in this area are being even mentioned in Parliament at all is a great step after a years of MPs ignoring women’s concerns and it is a great starting place for talking to our own MPs about this. This has not happened without gender critical women getting this issue on the political agenda so it’s a real sign of progress. 
Klaxon for MNers who know where to find this stuff- isn’t every bit of Parliamentary discussion minuted and made publicly available? Where would we find the full text of this speech and of what the replies were to it?
Also why isn’t it stated who has taken over these specific responsibilities from this previous Minister? From this it looks like it could be one of about four different people? (See this list for health and social care ministers) www.gov.uk/government/ministers#ministers-by-department