Company bosses in England and Wales could face up to five years in prison under the government's draft Conversion Practices Bill, according to reports this week, in a warning the government disputes.

The Telegraph reported on 4 November that it could expose senior managers to prosecution if an employee carried out a conversion practice — conduct intended to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or transgender identity. Campaigners warned that workplace disputes over a transgender employee's preferred pronouns could, in their view, leave bosses liable.

Under the draft, liability would extend beyond the person who carried out the practice to directors, managers and others in senior roles, unless they could show they had taken all reasonable steps to prevent it. Organisations could face unlimited fines.

What the draft bill says

The draft bill, published on GOV.UK in June, would create a new offence of carrying out an abusive conversion practice, carrying up to five years in prison, a fine, or both. Courts could also issue conversion practice protection orders, with breach punishable by up to two years. The bill applies to England and Wales only and is in pre-legislative scrutiny, with written evidence closing on 16 November.

The government rejects the interpretation. Ministers say the legislation targets abusive conversion practices, not freedom of belief or ordinary conversations about gender identity.

A report by Baroness Falkner, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and barrister Akua Reindorf KC, published by Policy Exchange on 2 November, called the draft "ideological, authoritarian, unworkable" and warned it could criminalise parents. The government called the report misleading, saying the bill "does not touch regular parenting".

The bill is only a draft and has not become law. If passed, it would take effect two months after Royal Assent.