Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Deben and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

On the first point, as I said, the review has to report in the first reporting period required under Clause 50. That means that it reports probably three years before the Bill comes into force, so there will be no cases. It is not doing what the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, was saying. On the second point about wriggling out, what the noble Baroness was describing would also be a Fatal Accidents Act case, so it would be covered, one hopes, by what the review deals with.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

My Lords, I come back to the idea of having an inquiry and a report. I do not quite understand why the noble and learned Lord does not feel that it is much more sensible for us to have it in the Bill. After all, otherwise you are in a sense dictating what the inquiry shall come up with. The only inquiry that you would want to have is one that found an answer to the problem, but you do not know that if you set up an inquiry. I would rather like to have the answer to start with in the Act so that we know that those people are protected.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The reason, from discussing and thinking about this issue, is that the Government see the most convenient way of doing it is to have a review that can make sure every single aspect is covered. That is the argument for the review.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Deben and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

They are fundamentally different, but the idea that removing the respiratory equipment does not involve some acts is not realistic. But I completely accept the proposition that they are different. On the legal point, there is some ambiguity about what the section means and whether it needs to be changed, but I am making it absolutely clear that, from my point of view and that of the promoters of the Bill, it is most certainly not outside the broader founding principles of the NHS.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

I accept that very much from the noble and learned Lord. The question I asked, because I think it important, is for the Government to say what the legal situation is, which they have a duty to tell us before we can make the decision. I entirely accept what the noble and learned Lord said about his own position, but this is a question for the Government, if they are independent of this. They have a duty to provide information to the House before we can make these decisions.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The broader question of whether this contributes to healthcare is for each of us to make our own judgment about. If noble Lords take the view—I am talking not about the legal issue but the broader issue—that this is wrong and contrary to the basic founding principles of the NHS, they can vote against the Bill. But if Parliament passes the Bill and says, “We are happy that that is the position”, it is saying that it is an acceptable part of healthcare.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

The noble and learned Lord really must accept that there is a problem with this being a Private Member’s Bill. He can say what he likes about the Bill, and I acknowledge and accept his absolute honesty about it, but the Government have the role of informing the House. Indeed, they do it: every time we have a debate, the Minister gets up and says that this or that would be difficult or awkward, or would be contrary to the European Court of Human Rights. I am only asking that they do that job on this. Is what is being proposed contrary to the founding position? Would the law have to be changed? It is up to the Government to tell us. We can then decide whether that matters.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

It is for Parliament to decide whether it is willing to pass the Bill. If Parliament is willing to pass the Bill, there may be the need for the legal change that the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, referred to. Whether or not you are willing to make the change is, for the reason I have said, a matter of what you think is the principle. Those are the only remarks that I need to make in relation to that, and I invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I apologise; I should have answered that request. I do not want to write; I want to tell the noble Baroness the answer now. The Bill, in the places that I have indicated, says that the panel, the two doctors and the assisting doctor must be satisfied that the consent is informed. If the position is that the person who wants the assistance, or is about to get the assistance, is misinformed in the way that the noble Baroness described, that would not be informed consent. For example, having been subject to digital information that is completely wrong or misleading in what it says would not be informed consent. As time goes on, no doubt doctors and others who have to satisfy themselves that the consent is informed will have to take steps to ensure that the patient’s understanding is right.

This goes to what the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, said. Sometimes, people do not take in what you are saying. Some people take in the wrong thing. Other people are, in the back of their mind—you cannot know this—thinking of something that is completely wrong. It is for the doctor or the panel in every case to satisfy themselves. It is explicit in the Bill that consent must be informed.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

To clarify one issue, the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, suggested that the Government should answer the question about whether they believe that these circumstances are covered. The government spokesman kindly passed it back to the noble and learned Lord, the proposer of the Bill. Could he please explain why it would not be sensible to put in the Bill precisely what would normally be expected of the doctor? This is merely because we would be much happier if that were there, and it would take it away from the problem the Minister does not want to touch himself, in case in some way he gets infected by not being independent. Why can he not just accept that, if what he says is true, putting it in the Bill does not alter it but makes people much more secure?

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I listened very carefully to that. I indicated previously, in relation to powers of attorney, for example, that it would be worth putting it in. First, I am not sure what “it” is. Secondly, “it” is there: the key is the words “informed consent”, which nobody has any difficulty in understanding. It may have a particular implication in a particular case, and you have to give people flexibility in relation to what they say, because it will depend on the circumstances. If I knew what “it” was, I would put it in, but it is just not that simple.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Deben and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

It is. The reason the two are different is that Clause 1(2) describes what is coming later in Clauses 8 to 30; Clause 1(3) is a mandatory requirement that the steps that come later have to take place when the person is in England or Wales. So they do different things. Subsection (2) is descriptive, and subsection (3) is a legal requirement. I am very happy to say that the shadow Attorney-General is nodding, which is very strengthening on this.

The one point that I have not dealt with properly, or at all, is that which the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, made about the interaction between the Mental Health Act and the Bill. I was not sure which specific amendment she was referring to; it may have been Amendment 38, but I do not know. However, as far as I can see, there is no legal difficulty in this Bill sitting with the Mental Health Act because, as long as these conditions are satisfied, the patient is entitled to have an assisted death. There is nothing in the Mental Health Act that would prevent that. I am more than happy to have a more detailed conversation with the noble Baroness and Professor Ruck Keene, if she wishes to bring him along and he is willing to come.

I hope that I have dealt with every amendment put forward.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

Just one point, as a matter of personal explanation, I did not call the noble and learned Lord Stonewall; it was the noble Lord, Lord Empey, who did so and I do not want to take his excellent comment away from him.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I apologise. I do not know whether the noble Lord feels that he is withdrawing a compliment or withdrawing an insult, but I get what he is doing.

To the noble Baroness, Lady Cash, before she gets to her feet, I say that she is right. In relation to the ECHR points that were raised by, I think, Mr Stevenson, who was the commissioner—I have the name wrong.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Deben (Con)]

Can I encourage the noble and learned Lord in what he has just said? I was going to intervene earlier, but decided I would wait for this moment. I am afraid the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, almost drove me to get up; she can say that she does not want to be a burden because she will not be one and I am quite sure her family would not let her be one. The truth of the matter is that we are concerned about making sure that people are given every opportunity to put themselves in the best position in the last six months of their lives. If the noble and learned Lord can find a way of having these questions asked without the disadvantage—I understand the point he makes—it would give us a great deal of support. I would like him to do that.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I hope I have been clear about not liking the amendments as they are and that I am keen to see whether what the noble Baronesses, Lady Smith of Newnham and Lady Fox, said can be incorporated somewhere in the Bill. It may well connect with things we have said already. I hope I have made my position clear.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Deben and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 12th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is intervening on somebody who made an intervention on somebody else. We got a very severe talking to about that before, so I do not think that is allowed.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

I did not realise that the noble Lord was intervening on me, but I will just say that, for me, it is very difficult to have that argument. Kindness is absolutely the central point of everything that I believe in, so I am very vulnerable to that question. But the truth is, the Bill does not talk about pain at all. There is nothing in the Bill about pain. This is about a totally different circumstance. One of the problems in the country as a whole is that many people who support the Bill do so because they think it is about pain.

We could have a Bill about pain, but then we would come back to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, that that is not what the Bill should have been. The Government should have said that they would give a free vote on a government Bill on this subject, rather than slipping it in in a wholly different way.

However, we are faced with what we have, and in that case it does not seem kind to say to people who are under all sorts of pressures and who are particularly vulnerable that this is a choice they should make. If we want kindness, we should be saying to the Government, “Get the Bill withdrawn and introduce a government Bill that is properly thought through where we can have the real debate that the public as a whole want us to have. You can still have a free vote”, but it should never have been put through in this way.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Deben and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 5th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

First, on there being no need to question someone about why they are withdrawing, if there is material relevant to it, I need to check the Bill to see that it should be recorded. But the Bill contains regular provisions that state that everything must be recorded. If it is not adequately covered—if somebody says, “I’m withdrawing because I think you’re being coerced”, obviously that should be recorded—I will make sure that it is covered.

On Amendment 405—

[Lord Deben (Con)]

I genuinely want to understand this. The worry we had about this being a drafting difference is simply because when you could withdraw only on grounds of illness or death, the situation about why you withdrew did not arise. When you remove that, people can withdraw without giving notice of why. Therefore, there ought to be something—the noble and learned Lord has rightly said that he will look at it—to make sure that if somebody withdraws because there is some serious issue in connection with the decision, they have to say what it is. If we do not have that, this very much becomes a weakening point. I know that the noble and learned Lord does not want it to become that, but without something that insists on the information being given, it does become much weaker. This is not a drafting point until that is put right; when it is, it is a drafting point.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I do not accept that it is not a drafting point, but that may be dancing on the head of a pin. The point that both the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, and the noble Lord, Lord Deben, are making concerns making sure that if you are leaving for a reason that will give rise to problems, it is properly recorded. I completely accept that and we will make sure that that is the position, because it is a valid point.

In relation to Amendment 405, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, said that it is a watering down. It is not a watering down at all, with respect. The current draft says:

“When carrying out an assessment in accordance with subsection (2), the assessing doctor must first ensure the provision of adjustments for language and literacy barriers, including the use of interpreters”.


The new draft says that the relevant doctor must

“take all reasonable steps to ensure that there is effective communication between the assessing doctor and the person being assessed (including, where appropriate, using an interpreter)”.

The noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is shaking his head; I am more than happy to talk to him about how that could be a change, and if there is some change that he would like in relation to it, let us put it in. But it is, in legal terms, to my eye, wider. It covers a much wider ambit without providing any inadequate protection. Maybe the right course is for me and the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, to sit down and for him to identify the changes that he would like. At the moment, I cannot see them.