Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Laurence Turner Excerpts

Friday 16th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Kim Leadbeater]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention. The civil servants are clearly neutral on the issue. They certainly have not expressed any opinions on the content of the Bill. They have merely provided the technical advice and expertise, and they have done so brilliantly in that regard.

New clause 10, amendment 52 and new schedule 1 are tabled in my name. As well as correcting the injustices in the legal situation, one key tenet of this Bill is choice for dying people, but it is also important that there is choice for doctors and other healthcare professionals and, indeed, anyone else. The Bill was always clear that:

“No registered medical practitioner or other health professional is under any duty…to participate in the provision of assistance in accordance with this Act”,

but new clause 10 expands that protection. It broadens the people to whom it applies and the functions to which it relates. New schedule 1 makes provision for enforcement of this right

“not to be subjected to any detriment”

in connection with the Bill.

[Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend accept that there may be a weakness in new schedule 1, in as far as it protects a person from actions taken by their employer? For example, it would not necessarily protect an agency worker who is contracted to perform a service, but the original medical body decides not to re-engage that person’s services.

[Kim Leadbeater]

I refer my hon. Friend to my previous comments that the Bill and these clauses and schedules have been drafted with the highest level of legal expertise. It is not something I anticipate being a problem.