Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of any direct or indirect costs to the NHS incurred by the provisions in the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

It is not possible, or appropriate at this stage, for the Government to provide a more narrowed consideration of either the policy intents, or the possible total or net costs of implementing the Bill. The Impact Assessment advises the following:

“Where sufficient information and evidence is available, illustrative figures for some impacts have been provided. These quantified elements are for the most part uncertain with wide ranges attached but should allow for some indication of the order of magnitude. The upper bound of these ranges should not be interpreted as maximum values, nor as representative of the full range of potential costs, given there are significant aspects of the Bill that have not been possible to quantify. Adding only the quantified elements of this IA together would not give a comprehensive assessment on the net impact of the Bill because significant unquantified impacts would not be accounted for in that net figure.”

A copy of the Impact Assessment is attached.