Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 11th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Ind)]

Rarely do we debate legislation that represents such a seismic shift in the relationships between individuals, the state, health providers and civic society. There is so much at stake. When Members believe strongly that a Bill is flawed and could be abused, resulting in serious harm, we have an absolute duty to implore others not to simply let it pass and hope for the best, but to consider it fully and deeply and to accept that our duty is first and foremost to protect lives. The potential consequences of poorly drafted legislation without robust safeguards are ultimately the responsibility of every single Member in this Chamber.

I come to this debate wearing several hats. I come as the representative for Canterbury, the home of this country’s Christian faith. Rather than removing that aspect from this debate, as others may have chosen to do, I must consider the views of the Church, and the archbishop has made her view clear again this week. There have also been representations from our sizeable mosque and that community. I come as a daughter who, this week last year, was sitting at my father’s bedside as he was dying from early onset Alzheimer’s, which so cruelly began when he was not much older than I am now. I come also as the partner of a filmmaker who directed the BBC documentary “Better Off Dead?”, which was led by Liz Carr and based on her decades of disability rights activism. I was already aware of Liz’s work through her Not Dead Yet campaign, but the opportunity to learn much more by discussing this subject at home in depth for so many months was invaluable.

Lifelong campaigner Baroness Jane Campbell has seen off so many attempts to pass assisted suicide legislation in the other place that she likens it to groundhog day. In the documentary, she says:

“People are decent, kind. They think that they’re doing us a great favour by giving us this choice. But what they don’t realise is how deadly that choice can be.”

It is worth repeating that not a single disabled rights organisation or professional body supports this legislation. If this place were truly representative of the UK’s population, there would be almost 100 physically disabled Members of Parliament, but we are nowhere near that.

[Marsha De Cordova]

I thank my hon. Friend for the very powerful speech she is giving; she truly sets the tone when she talks about disabled people. There was a poll out this morning of thousands of disabled people, and many of them rightly said that they need assistance to live. We have to get our palliative care and social care right, with the right investment, before we can even begin to engage in a debate about assisted death and assisted suicide. Does she agree that those should be our priorities, not trying to push through legislation that is flawed and not fit for purpose?

[Rosie Duffield]

Absolutely, and I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution and her considerable experience in this area.

We hear a lot about coercion. Those with learning disabilities are surely extremely vulnerable to that, as well as the elderly and people with dementia. Before my dad lost the ability to speak, he could absolutely have presented as being capable of signing on the dotted line to medical professionals who did not know him like the family did. In reality, he would have forgotten almost immediately what had just taken place, but he retained an ability to be jovial, and to mask his confusion and memory issues, for quite some time.

As for the slippery slope, every single example in other nations proves without a doubt that at the start, the intention may be that assisted dying legislation will apply only to terminal illness—dementia and Alzheimer’s are, of course, terminal—but the scope ends up expanding alarmingly, as it has done in Canada, and in the Netherlands, which is so much closer to home.

[Lizzi Collinge]

I am sure that the hon. Lady is aware that the law in Canada was brought in after a Supreme Court judgment, whereas our Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights have repeatedly refused to rule on this, saying quite rightly that it is a matter for Parliament. Does she accept that this jurisdiction is different, and that this is a matter for Parliament, and can be changed only by Parliament?

[Rosie Duffield]

We talk a lot about Canada, but the Netherlands is practically next door to my constituency and has a democracy very similar to ours. People in their 20s have been allowed to take this path there, which is absolutely shocking. Mental ill health, and even solvable temporary social problems, have entered the fray in those other nations; I am talking about depression and homelessness. There are young people opting to end their life. Those in favour of this Bill may dismiss that as scaremongering, but it happens in one of our neighbouring democracies.

One of our most powerful speakers here, the hon. Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah), this week hosted Alicia Duncan, whose story featured in “Better Off Dead?”. Her mother was put on the Canadian MAID—medical assistance in dying—system’s track 1, which is for those who have a terminal health diagnosis, despite her not having one. Alicia’s family believes that she was essentially coerced, through an abusive relationship, and her children were not able to prevent her death. These horrifying cases may seem isolated, but there are many, many more stories, trust me, that did not make the final cut of the documentary—stories not told to anyone. We make laws based on worst-case scenarios every single week, so why is this Bill so almost uniquely optimistic?

If we have any doubt, we must vote against this Bill today. It does not mean that we believe that the principles of it are entirely wrong, but I urge colleagues to listen to disabled activists like Liz Carr, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Jane Campbell, and experts in palliative care in the other place, such as Ilora Finlay and Professor Katherine Sleeman. I ask them to please vote against this Bill if they have any doubt.

HMP Downview: Female Prisoners

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Ind)]

Will the hon. Lady make it clear again for anyone watching this debate that what she is saying is that those biological males—fully intact biological males—housed on the women’s estate are overwhelmingly convicted of violent sexual offences?

[Rebecca Paul]

I thank the hon. Lady for making that point. This is the reality of the data; we must not ignore what the data tells us. I did warn that it makes for an uncomfortable truth, but I can verify all of it and provide hon. Members with the data—I would not come to the House and give hon. Members incorrect data. Accordingly, we can conclude that the male transgender prison population poses a much higher risk to women and girls.

When people parrot the line that transwomen are not a threat to women, in the case of the prison population, I am afraid that that statement does not hold up. Zoe Watts, a biological male who identifies as a women, was jailed for eight years and six months after trying to use a 3D printer to make a gun that had the capacity to cause mass casualties. He was arrested by armed officers and a stockpile of weapons and materials was found at his home. There was a disturbing video on social media of him smashing a watermelon with women’s faces on it using a glass shard-encrusted baseball bat. He was put in HMP Downview.

Joanna Rowland-Stuart, a biological male who identifies as a woman, who stabbed his partner to death with a samurai sword, was put in HMP Downview too. John Dixon, now known as Sally, is a paedophile who was found guilty of 30 sexual assault charges involving seven children, some as young as six years old. He may have been held in HMP Downview too.

There are also more well known transwomen prisoners who have hit the headlines, such as Isla Bryson and Karen White, both incarcerated with women. Isla Bryson, from Scotland, was jailed for raping two women, but only after being charged did he come out as transgender. This dangerous rapist was remanded in a women’s prison. Holyrood, it seems, is even worse than Westminster for drinking the gender Kool-Aid. The case of Karen White is even more appalling. A transwoman convicted of rape and a knife attack, he was remanded in HMP New Hall, a women’s and young offenders’ prison, where he sexually assaulted two inmates. Thankfully, this dangerous predator is no longer in the women’s prison estate.

I hope hon. Members understand why I have grave concerns about such violent males continuing to be incarcerated with women. Not only is it against the law, the Supreme Court clarified back in April that single-sex provision must be based on biological sex alone, not anything else, but it is irresponsible and dangerous. Women prisoners deserve better than this. They should feel and be safe.

I now want to get into a bit more detail about E Wing within HMP Downview. Ministers have said many times in response to written questions that E Wing is not part of the general women’s estate, which is an odd statement for them to make. E Wing is a wing within HMP Downview, and HMP Downview is a women’s prison, ergo E Wing is part of the women’s prison estate. I have visited it and seen it with my own eyes.

Why might Ministers be at pains to say that it is not part of the general women’s estate? I believe they are using a play on words to obscure the fact that the single-sex provisions of the Equality Act are being breached. The current policy for managing transgender prisoners, introduced by the former right hon. Member for Esher and Walton when he was Justice Secretary, prohibits male prisoners who retain their birth genitalia or have any history of sexual or violent offences from being held in the general women’s estate, unless an exemption is granted by a Minister. So this ministerial characterisation that E wing is not part of the general women’s estate appears to be a tenuous effort to argue that they have complied with the policy and the Equality Act after all.

E Wing is physically located within a women’s prison. It is subject to the same policies and procedures as the rest of HMP Downview. It has the same Governor. Its funding comes out of the same pots. Its inmates are supported by the same health services. It beggars belief that Ministers think that we will believe that this wing is not part of the women’s estate.

Putting to one side this blatant breach of the Equality Act for now, let us consider whether the males held in E Wing are truly segregated from the rest of the female prison population. Again, Ministers keep saying that they are, but E Wing is like any other wing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Sackman]

I agree with the hon. Lady that such delays are not acceptable, and I am sorry to hear of the distress that this will have caused. It is right that we continue to invest in our improvement plan and continue to see progress with digitisation. Digitising the application forms is a first step, but we want to see end-to-end digitisation, which we know is resulting in decent progress and has sped up those times over recent months. There is more to do, and we shall do it.

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Ind)]

21. What steps her Department is taking through the criminal justice system to help tackle violence against women and girls.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Sarah Sackman)]

As I have said, the Government are committed to halving violence against women and girls within a decade. It is an important ambition, and the criminal justice system has a vital role to play in it. In November, we launched a pilot promoting domestic abuse protection orders in selected areas, and we have ambitions to roll that out further. We will also introduce independent legal advisers for adult rape victims, ensuring that victims have the legal support that they need and deserve.

[Rosie Duffield]

Last week, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner found that just 5% of reported domestic abuse results in a conviction. Does the Minister share my concerns that lengthy investigations into non-crime hate incidents are potentially diverting vital resources from the criminal justice system and from prosecuting actual violence against women and girls?

Oral Answers to Questions

Rosie Duffield Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

I can assure the House and my hon. Friend that HMP Parc is receiving targeted support. She points to the recent visit by my hon. and noble Friends to the prison, and the Minister for Prisons in the other place is providing full evidence about this and other matters to the Welsh Affairs Committee tomorrow.

[Rosie Duffield (Canterbury) (Ind)]

T9. Elizabeth Fry first began her work to create sex-specific prison facilities for women in 1813, with the primary aim of protecting female prisoners from rape, and the Gaols Act 1823 put this into statute. Yet 200 years later, Fry’s legacy is being betrayed as girls and women continue to be housed with boys and men. One such example is Wetherby. Does the Secretary of State agree with me and the Women’s Rights Network that Susannah Hancock’s work on this is urgently needed, and can she give any indication of when Susannah will conclude her review?

[Shabana Mahmood]

There are no girls currently in Wetherby. We have not changed and will not be changing the policy we inherited from the previous Government in relation to single-sex spaces and the prison system; that policy will remain as it has been. The women’s justice board will consider the issues that relate to female offenders across the women’s estate.