Paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) following a BBC interview, with a fellow doctor accusing her of "misleading" the public on gender-affirming care for young people.
Dr Helen Webberley, founder of the online clinic GenderGP, submitted a formal referral to the medical regulator over the weekend. In a blog post, she alleged that Dr Cass violated several principles of the GMC's Good Medical Practice standards in her work on transgender youth healthcare.
The complaint follows Dr Cass's appearance on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, where she stated that transgender young people were being "weaponised" in a "toxic" debate, making it harder for some to live "under the radar". These remarks were criticised by activists and some medical experts as misleading.
Dr Webberley echoed these criticisms, noting that Dr Cass is "not a gender specialist, has no clinical experience in this field, and has no research history or publications in transgender healthcare". Her referral reportedly challenges claims Dr Cass has made about social and medical transition which, she argues, lack "supporting citations or evidence". It also references a British Medical Council assessment suggesting Dr Cass's review had a "high risk of bias".
"I do not do this lightly," Dr Webberley wrote. "Referring a fellow doctor to the GMC is one of the most serious steps any medical professional can take. But yesterday’s interview crystallised for me exactly why this referral is necessary."
The controversy centres on the Cass Review, an independent report commissioned in 2020 into gender identity services for children and young people in England. The review made 32 recommendations to restructure care. Its publication was followed by a ban on new puberty blocker prescriptions for under-18s in NHS settings, a policy later extended indefinitely.
The review has faced significant criticism from some medical bodies, including the British Medical Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Last year, Australian researchers published an analysis expressing "grave concern" over the review's impact on trans youth safety and wellbeing.
Dr Webberley argued the review has a "very real impact" and that the BBC interview demonstrated why her complaint was needed. She stated Dr Cass was given a platform to repeat "contested claims as fact" without being challenged on peer-reviewed critiques of her work.
"When a single review has this much power over the lives of real people, the professional standards that underpinned its creation matter enormously," Dr Webberley concluded. "If there are legitimate questions about whether those standards were met, they deserve to be examined. That is what the GMC is for."
