Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Rooker and Lord Deben

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deben (Con)]

I am perfectly happy to accept the intervention, but I understand why the noble Lord, Lord Birt, did not accept any intervention, as he might have found it difficult to answer the questions that we are asking.

The point that I am making is very simple and it remains: we have to make a decision always among priorities. The problem with this decision—and it is why this should have been a government Bill and not a Private Member’s Bill—is that, as a Private Member’s Bill, it is a single-issue Bill. It is promoted by people who want this to be decided irrespective of its effect on everything else that happens. That it is not acceptable, it seems to me, for the Government. The purpose of my comment is that it is not about how much the proponents think it will cost; it is about the effect of this over the rest of the National Health Service. If the Bill is passed, where is it going to fit? The Government really cannot get up and say that we are entirely independent. They have to tell us, if this Bill is passed, where they see it sitting, because the proponents of the Bill have not expressed this. What is the real cost; that is, not the sum of money, but the effect of it on the rest of the service provided? They also have to tell us how it will impact the essential demands that the public have for so many other things.

We can argue about what the public think about this Bill—I am pretty sure that they think about this Bill rather differently from what it actually is—but we have to recognise that the public also have very strong views about what money should be spent in other areas. The Government have to tell us, from their point of view, how much it will cost, what the effect will be on the other services provided, where it will sit if it is passed, and how they will overcome the problem that many of those who may be asked to support it have said that they will not. Those are things for the Government to tell us and, so far, they have been unable to put answers to any of those questions, which is the second reason—the other is the point that the noble Lord has just made about amendments—why we have constantly to go on arguing, in detail, about this Bill.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

My Lords, I will give a specific example. On 8 January, at col. 1416, the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, made a short speech, which consisted of about six specific questions. One of them was about the interaction of the health service and the Bill. Later that evening, I said to my noble and learned friend in intervention that he should come back within the next 10 days and answer those questions. The fact that he has refused to do so, and the suspicion being he has no intention of doing so, is why the amendments will keep being raised. That is basically the point that the noble Lord, Lord Empey, was making: there is a suspicion that they will not be answered. If we could do that, we could make more progress anyway because of the nature of the amendments that have been put down.