Arrangement of Business

Debate between Lord Harper and Baroness Blackstone

Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Chief Whip has rightly pointed to the lack of progress we are making on this Bill. Part of the problem is not how much time we spend on each amendment, but the number of amendments that have been put down, which is unprecedented. I hope that those who are opposed to the Bill will accept that many of us who are in favour of it understand completely the good faith of those who are querying some aspects of it. What we are worried about is that we are not going to be able properly to consider the Bill because of the time being taken on many amendments—quite often rather absurd ones, and some of which completely repeat what has already been brought forward.

Lastly, in defence of my noble and learned friend the Bill’s sponsor, he has responded in these debates with courtesy and consideration and has taken seriously what has been said. It is very unfair to criticise him. He has also responded in a letter, as has already been stated, setting out which amendments he intends to take further and come up with a response to on Report.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, responding directly to that point, it is indeed true that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, wrote to some members yesterday. Sadly, I did not receive his letter directly from him, but it was forwarded to me. Part of the problem here, directly relating to the noble Baroness’s question, is that the Committees of this House reported some months ago—the Delegated Powers Committee, for example, reported in September. If this was a Government Bill, the Minister would have been expected to set out a thorough, detailed response to all these points before we started Committee stage. We received a letter only yesterday from the noble and learned Lord, setting out his points, and in most cases, he said that the amendments would follow later. Had that happened earlier, many amendments would not have needed tabling. If the noble Baroness is looking for the reason for the delay, it is not just on one side of the House.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Harper and Baroness Blackstone

Committee stage
Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, it is far easier to develop a code of practice over time and change it in the context of changes in the environment. It is much more difficult to change a law by statute, which means it has to be brought back into both Houses of Parliament, so I do not really think that the point the noble Baroness just made is valid.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, having listened to this debate, I am struck that there seems to be a fair bit of consensus. Thinking back to the arrangement of business discussion we had about the pace before this debate, I have listened to the number of people who quoted Kim Leadbeater and her uncomfortableness about making these decisions on Zoom. It strikes me that if she had followed through on that uncomfortableness and put into the Bill a clear presumption that these decisions should be taken face to face, with some exceptions that I will elaborate on in a minute, we would not have needed this debate and we would be moving at a faster pace. There is perhaps a lesson there for the noble and learned Lord: if more cognisance had been taken about some of these concerns at an earlier stage, we would have moved at a faster pace.

The only reason why these amendments exists, why we have debated them and why the noble Lord, Lord Birt, referenced how important a decision this is to get right is that this issue has not already been addressed. I will just leave that there as a possible reason why there are as many amendments as there are to this lengthy Bill and why the debate is necessary: it is because it has not already been done. I will leave that for noble Lords to think about.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Harper and Baroness Blackstone

Committee stage
Friday 12th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

My Lords, I wonder whether we can now hear from the Front Benches. We have had a long discussion about these issues and have moved into the danger of repetition. We have already had a response from the sponsor of the Bill too, so I think it is now the turn of the Front Benches.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords—