Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Frost and Lord Lansley

Committee stage
Friday 5th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I rise to introduce Amendment 23 in my name. This amendment obviously goes with the thrust of some of the other amendments that have already been proposed and deals with some of the issues that have come up in this debate. It takes a slightly different route from the others by simply adding a new criterion, paragraph (e), to Clause 1, and would therefore restrict access to assisted dying support to two well-defined and well-understood categories of people: British citizens and those with indefinite leave to remain.

The purpose of couching it in this way is twofold: it is designed to do two things. First, it is designed to provide a way of cutting through the eligibility problem that we have been discussing and the ambiguity of some of the definitions by providing two very clear definitions that avoid the border issues and potential uncertainties of meaning in some of the other definitions. It could be read, as I have drafted it, together with the criteria of ordinary residence—in other words, you must satisfy both these criteria to be eligible for assisted dying support—or we could simply remove the ordinary residence criteria and rest entirely on the fact that you have to be a British citizen or have indefinite leave to remain. Both of those are well-understood categories: they are not susceptible to debate and they are both easily proven. That is the advantage of looking at it in this way.

The other purpose is to provide a very clear barrier, for similar reasons, to death tourism for people who obtain short-term visas, or no visa at all, for the purpose of obtaining an assisted death. It would stop England and Wales becoming destinations for this. I want to briefly summarise why we want to avoid that: the reasons have been taken slightly as read in this discussion, but I want to recall them, although not in great depth.

First, without such a provision as my amendment would provide, it becomes more difficult to enforce the safeguards, whatever they are, that end up in this Bill, for example on past medical history and mental health capacity. It can be difficult to obtain international medical records, they are not always written in exactly the same way and they can, from some countries, be relatively easily forged or faked. It is also difficult to confirm that somebody who has a short-term relationship or no relationship with the UK is not being coerced by people abroad or has consistent capacity. So there is that angle to it.

Secondly, there is also the risk of diplomatic complication, taking in non-permanently resident foreign citizens to commit what may be an offence in their home jurisdiction. Some countries will probably feel more strongly about that than others, but the risk exists and this would exclude it.

Thirdly, there are pull factors, an obvious problem that we are very familiar with in the UK: the global appeal of the English language, the ease of registration with a GP, and, as I have said, the laxity of some of the definitions.

Fourthly, there are resource constraints: our healthcare system has finite capacity for end-of-life care, whoever ends up providing it. This amendment ensures that those who end up being eligible are those with a very clear connection to the UK, either with citizenship or the clear right to remain here for as long as they wish.

Finally—

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend is making interesting points, but I am somewhat worried. He is particularly well-equipped to recognise that there are possibly as many as 1.5 million people from the European Union in this country with pre-settled status who are neither British citizens nor have indefinite leave to remain. There are also probably somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 Irish citizens living in this country who have neither of these qualifications.

[Lord Frost (Non-Afl)]

That is certainly true. The noble Lord makes a good point. The principle that is in my amendment could be expanded to take in other well-defined categories. I will be more convinced about the Irish category than the EU pre-settled status, given this issue was not anything like an issue when we negotiated the EU treaties that created that status, but that is for discussion if the principle is agreed.

Finally, I will just note that the amendment I have put forward reflects norms elsewhere, notably in Australia and New Zealand. It is quite closely based on Section 9 of the Victoria Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017, which, whatever its manifold other weaknesses, is at least clear on this point. I will stop there and look forward to the discussion and the views of the sponsor. I offer this amendment as a potential way of providing more clarity and reducing the level of ambiguity in what is obviously going to be a very important provision in the Bill.

Product Regulation and Metrology Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Frost and Lord Lansley

Report stage
Wednesday 5th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 56 stands in my name. As it is, I guess, the last time that I will speak on this Bill, perhaps I may use the opportunity to join others in saying thank you to the Ministers for the willingness they have shown to meet us and to show flexibility on parts of the Bill, even if that flexibility has possibly been more evident on its more marginal and peripheral aspects than on the core provisions, which matter so much to us. I thank them anyway for it.

One of those core provisions, which we have debated at length, is of course Clause 2(7), which creates the power to align UK legislation with EU law. My Amendment 56 would ensure that the affirmative parliamentary procedure applied to such secondary legislation under that provision. This is important, as the procedure of legislating by cross-reference to the laws of another entity is certainly, to borrow terminology from another sphere, novel and contentious. Therefore, if it happens—I am sure it is going to happen and probably quite a lot, I fear—it really ought to do so only consciously and according to a procedure that gives both of this Parliament’s Houses the maximum powers to be aware that it is happening and to influence it to the maximum possible. Of course, that is what the affirmative procedure is about. I hope that, even at this late stage, the Ministers might look favourably on this amendment in the interests of respecting the rights and powers of this Parliament.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, if I may briefly intervene in this group, we had a substantive debate on Monday, in which I participated, where we looked at the recommendations from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. As we noted, it welcomed some of the amendments, which we technically have not reached but which were debated then. They are Amendments 44 to 46, which have largely removed the Henry VIII powers. To that extent, therefore, I note that although my noble friend may come on to speak about Amendment 48, in practice that amendment is designed to prevent the use of Henry VIII powers. However, the Government have tabled amendments that have largely removed that risk.

I very much support Amendment 56 in the names of my noble friends Lord Sharpe of Epsom and Lord Frost. In so far as the Government have not done what the Delegated Powers Committee looked for, which was for all these regulation-making powers to be subject to the affirmative procedure, it seems that we should focus our attention on where there is still the most important deficiency. It also seems that, precisely for the reasons that my noble friend Lord Frost gave, which I will not repeat, at its most extreme, the power in Clause 2(7) would literally be if the Government brought forward a regulation saying that all the product requirements in this country would be met in so far as they corresponded to the General Product Safety Regulation issued by the European Union, which, of course, came out in December 2024. They could easily come forward with such a regulation. That would be sweeping in its effect, and it would be on a negative basis.