On 24 April, the last day of Committee Stage in the Lords of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill concluded. With the Parliamentary session ending this week, the Bill will make no further progress, and will fall.
This final day saw its sponsor in the Lords, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, move a motion to “make note of the progress of its scrutiny of the Bill during the current session”. This allowed him and other proponents of the Bill (many of whom had not far engaged with the process) to spend the day accusing peers on the other side of deliberately using procedure to block the Bill.
Baroness Berger responded to these accusations by pointing out the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny and the fact that this is the longest private members bill ever tabled. She also reminded the House that a major change (removing the high court judge sign off) only happened very late in the proceedings.
Many other peers spoke about how their legitimate scrutiny of the Bill sprung from their concern about its impact on vulnerable people. Baroness Hollins spoke powerfully of her concerns about institutional coercion based on her family’s experience when her daughter, Abigail Witchells, was in hospital with severe spinal injuries.
Commenting on the fall of the Leadbeater Bill, Alithea Williams, SPUC’s Public Policy Manager: “It is brilliant news that this bill will go no further. You will recall that even when the Bill passed its first vote in the Commons, the media narrative was that this monumental and terrifying change was inevitable.
“Make no mistake, this outcome is not because of procedural fluke,” she went on. “The Lords took their job of scrutiny seriously, and the more they scrutinised it, the more its flaws were exposed. The Bill was so flawed that it was simply in no shape to pass in the time available. People from a whole range of perspectives – disability, social work, domestic abuse, palliative care and the wider medical professional, and of course, pro-life groups – worked incredibly hard to prove to Parliamentarians and the public how dangerous this Bill is.”
Ms Williams also thanked SPUC supporters for their work to defeat this Bill. “You played a crucial role in this. Thank you so much for all your work on this. Everything you have done to lobby MPs and then peers, and to spread the word in your communities, really has made a difference. This is a great victory, and we should acknowledge that.”
“However, I’m afraid we cannot take much time to enjoy it,” she went on. “Proponents of the Bill are already threatening to make unprecedented use of an obscure parliamentary procedure (the Parliament Acts) to try and force through the same fatally flawed Bill in the next session without it passing through the House of Lords. The next ballot for private members bills will take place in just a few weeks, and any MP who gets a high spot in that ballot will be under huge pressure to take on the Bill. Please write to your MP, expressing how concerned you are about the idea of assisted suicide being legalised, and how relieved you are that the Leadbeater Bill has run out of time.”
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