Scottish Government spent £72,000 on ‘conversion therapy’ helpline receiving just four calls in three months

• FOI reveals taxpayer-funded LGBT hotline service received only four calls between October and December 2025 – with no certainty that these calls weren’t made by one single contact

• Same charity, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, also spent Government funding on running a “Queer Milk” service to teach men how to lactate

A Scottish Government-funded ‘conversion therapy’ helpline received just four contacts in a three-month period, despite receiving almost £72,000 of taxpayer funding last year, according to newly released Freedom of Information data.

The figures, obtained by The Christian Institute through an FOI request, show that the Scottish Government paid £71,996 in 2025 to LGBT Health and Wellbeing to operate the helpline.

However, between October and December 2025, the service was contacted only four times – possibly by the same individual.

The Government was unable to provide figures for the preceding nine months. If the final quarter is representative of the rest of the year, the helpline would have received around 16 contacts annually – equivalent to approximately £4,500 of public funding per contact.

The figures come as the charity, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, faces growing scrutiny over its use of public money. The Times recently revealed that the organisation, which received £744,000 of public funding in 2024-25, runs sessions teaching biological men identifying as women how to breastfeed babies.

The same organisation has also been lobbying the Scottish Government to introduce its own wide-ranging ‘conversion therapy’ legislation, arguing in a strongly worded letter to Scottish Ministers last month that Westminster’s proposals do not go far enough, and that Scotland should introduce its own, more “comprehensive” ban.

The helpline’s own guidance suggests that ordinary parental conversations about a child’s gender may amount to so-called conversion therapy. For example, one illustration of what “conversion therapy” could look like depicts a parent telling a child: “You’re too young, you’re confused, we need to get you help.”

Joanna Timm, Senior Public Affairs Officer at The Christian Institute, said:

“These figures expose an extraordinary misuse of public money. Scottish taxpayers have funded what may well be the nation’s most expensive helpline.

“Existing criminal law already deals with abusive and coercive behaviour. The kind of law LGBT Health and Wellbeing are demanding would redefine ordinary parenting, pastoral care and prayer as ‘conversion therapy’.

“Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll an organisation that promotes controversial gender ideology while campaigning for a law that could criminalise ordinary conversations between parents and children, or ministers and members of their congregations.”

ENDS