Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 20th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

My Lords, I will respond to the sensible invitation of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, to give a brief indication as to what my amendments here do. The noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, earlier referred to the Delegated Powers Committee, which made a number of criticisms of the previous Clause 22, in particular that it did not specify the circumstances in which it was mandatory to have an independent advocate and that it left too much to regulations. We introduced two new clauses to deal with that.

The first proposed new clause is found in Amendment 548A. It first requires that anybody carrying out a relevant activity under the Act has to consider whether the person seeking an assisted death requires an independent advocate. The person carrying out the relevant activity is broadly either the first doctor, the second doctor, the provider of assistance to the patient or a member of the panel. If the relevant person decides that the person does need an independent advocate, the person performing the activity under the Act must give the person seeking the assistance

“information about representation and support provided by independent advocates, and … an explanation of the effect of subsection (3)”,

which is that if you need support you are entitled to have an independent advocate, but if you do not want the support you can say no to it. Where the person performing the relevant activity is a doctor, as opposed to the panel, they have to tell the commissioner for assisted dying that this person has been given the information about an independent advocate.

The people who qualify for an independent advocate are not everybody applying for an assisted death, only either

“a person with a mental disorder”

or

“a person who (in the absence of support) would experience substantial difficulty in doing one or more of the following … understanding relevant information … retaining that information … using or weighing that information as part of the process of making relevant decisions, or … communicating their views, wishes or feelings (whether by talking, using sign language or any other means)”,

as we discussed previously.

If an independent advocate is engaged, their job is to “represent and support” somebody seeking assistance in

“understanding the options available … as regards end of life care, or … anything done under this Act, by or in relation to”

the patient. The job is to help to understand, not to be an advocate for any particular cause.

In Amendment 549A there is an additional proposed new clause, which is collateral to the new clause, saying:

“The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision about independent advocates”.


Those regulations basically have to specify the training required for independent advocates, identify who gives them instructions in individual cases and make arrangements for who appoints them. So one now has —this is the point that the Delegated Powers Committee was making—clear circumstances for identifying when an independent advocate should be appointed and on whom the duty arises to make sure it happens.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)]

My Lords, following that, I am concerned about whether I have read Amendment 553 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, correctly. She did say at the end that maybe not all her amendments were perfectly drafted, so I may have misunderstood it.

As I read the amendment—following after the new Clause 22, as my noble and learned friend has just said —it says that any person, not just a qualifying person,

“between age 18 and 25 wishing to receive assistance under the provisions of this Act must receive consent from a parent or guardian and must be accompanied by an independent advocate in addition to parent or guardian”.

I think I am correct in reading that as everybody, not just a qualifying person.

The idea is that someone at the age of 25 still needs a parent or guardian—if they even know where their parents are. Maybe it is partly because I was brought up in the forces, but I know of people who have taken major life and death decisions by the age of 25 while in charge of military units at war. I have known people—in fact, I see some around the Committee—who by the age of 25 have given birth to children, which seems to me an enormous decision that one takes. I, well below that age, took a decision that meant I would never have children. I know of surgeons who before the age of 25 have taken decisions of a life and death magnitude in surgery. There will be people now sitting on the Bishops’ Benches who will know of circumstances in which big decisions are taken by people well below that age.

I am really surprised that we would be writing this into the Bill for those people. Suddenly, at the point when they are terminally ill and dying, we say that, up to the age of 25, they have to locate a parent—whom they may not have seen for years—and, in addition to the parent, have to have an advocate with them. I find that extraordinarily devaluing of ordinary human life and the ability to take decisions.

As I say, I could have misunderstood the amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, said that she may not have drafted it correctly, so it may be that this should apply only to a qualifying person and not all people. I still have my doubts that we really need to treat adults as if they are really young children.