Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lee Dillon Excerpts

Friday 13th June 2025 Commons Chamber

The amendment needs to go hand in hand with urgent action, however, which is why I have been persuaded today to support amendment 42 so that the parlous state of palliative care can start to be meaningfully addressed before the Bill comes into force. If it is not in a better state, the Bill should not be enacted.

[Mr Lee Dillon (Newbury) (LD)]

I hear the argument from hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber about palliative care in this country not being at the level that we would expect, and I accept that. What I do not hear from those who oppose the Bill is exactly what level we need so that assisted dying can go hand in hand with it as a genuine option.

[Munira Wilson]

I note that the Health and Social Care Committee and the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) have undertaken a report, so they will advise us on that issue. [Interruption.] I am aware that I need to finish, so I urge hon. Members to support the amendments of my hon. Friends the Members for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) and for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) to ensure that we do not allow the Bill to implement sweeping Henry VIII powers on such a sensitive and important issue, and to ensure that we collect, through new schedule 2, important monitoring data on how any assisted dying or death service will operate. We need transparency.