The High Court has ruled a ban on puberty blockers introduced by the Conservative government using emergency legislation was lawful.

Campaign group TransActual, and a young person who cannot be named, made a bid to challenge the decision of now-shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins to impose a so-called “banning order” on puberty blockers.

The treatment, which suppresses the natural production of sex hormones to delay puberty, has proved controversial with Health Secretary Wes Streeting later said he was “treading cautiously” in his decision amid “lots of fear and anxiety."

At a hearing today, the High Court in London heard the secondary legislation prevents the prescription of the medication from European or private prescribers and restricts NHS provision to within clinical trials.

The High Court has ruled the ban was lawful

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland defended the claim and said the case should be dismissed.

In a ruling today, Mrs Justice Lang dismissed the challenges which had argued the ban was unlawful.

She said: "This decision required a complex and multi-factored predictive assessment, involving the application of clinical judgment and the weighing of competing risks and dangers, with which the court should be slow to interfere."

Although the emergency ban was implemented by the previous Conservative government, the court previously heard that it might be made permanent by new Labour ministers.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes StreetingGetty

Wes Streeting has faced criticism from within his own party for the decision, with members of Labour’s LGBT wing writing to him earlier this month with “concerns” about an indefinite ban.