Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Andrew Pakes Excerpts

Friday 13th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dame Siobhain McDonagh]

That is the whole purpose of my amendment and my speech. Section 1 of the 2006 Act is the legal foundation on which every NHS duty rests, guaranteeing that our NHS will serve everyone, always. The section, which expresses the promise of

“a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement…in the physical and mental health of the people of England”,

has remained virtually unchanged since 1946. Those words, spoken by Nye Bevan and enshrined in law, set out the purpose of the NHS: a national health service free at the point of delivery.

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)]

rose—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before an intervention is taken, may I put it on the record that Members should not be wandering into the Chamber and then very quickly making an intervention? Lots of Members are waiting to speak and to make interventions. Is that the case? Have you been in the Chamber for a while?

[Andrew Pakes]

indicated assent.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Okay, go on.

[Andrew Pakes]

I did use the facilities, Madam Deputy Speaker; I apologise for that. I am a gentleman of an age. [Laughter.]

I thank my hon. Friend for taking an intervention. We are about to reach the 80th anniversary of the landslide 1945 Labour Government, which set the NHS in train, and the 77th anniversary of the NHS. Fundamental to that is her point about the NHS being free at the point of need and being about care, compassion and life. What assessment has she made of how the Bill, if it goes through unamended, will fundamentally challenge that great victory and legacy that Labour Members cherish?

[Dame Siobhain McDonagh]

The power to alter the intentions, as mentioned by my hon. Friend, was not in the Bill we voted for in November. That is why I have tabled my amendment: to prevent anyone from tampering with the NHS as founded by our forefathers.

Let us be clear about what clause 38 would allow. It would allow a Minister, through delegated legislation, to rewrite the very purpose of our NHS; it would let them do so without the full scrutiny that primary legislation demands; and it would mean that Parliament could be denied any real chance to amend or reject that change. These are not abstract constitutional concerns; this is about whether the founding promise of the NHS can be quietly rewritten—not through open debate or an Act of Parliament, but by a handful of MPs behind closed doors in a Committee room. Once that pass is sold, there is no telling what future Governments might do or undo.

That is why this matters so deeply, because the NHS is not just a set of services, but a promise—a promise made right here in this House nearly 80 years ago, on Second Reading of the National Health Service Act 1946.