Coroners (Determination of Suicide) Bill [HL]

Baroness Merron Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 28th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, every suicide is one tragic death too many and it is incumbent on us to seek to address the factors that lead people to take their own lives. It is not just a tragedy for the person who has reached the end of the line; it deeply affects their loved ones and communities. I know from the very many debates that we have had in this House how many noble Lords are committed to dealing with and exposing the realities of the factors that drive people to suicide.

I congratulate the right reverend Prelate not just on bringing forward this Bill—again—today and his work on it but for his continued work to challenge harms, particularly gambling harms. We support the general aims and intentions of the Bill. As my noble friend Lord Ponsonby has previously said, one issue it raises is whether the coronial system is the best way to get data to help inform the fight against suicide. Of course, the primary purpose of coroners’ courts is to determine how someone died, rather than why they died. The reasons for suicide are, as we have heard today, often complex, and it is so important that quality information is gathered on the circumstances leading to suicide. While gathering data is indeed helpful, it may not be beneficial to categorise reasons for suicide if they do not reflect the complex background to the event—it must be accurate.

The Bill specifies that the Secretary of State must issue guidance on the factors which the coroner must consider in reaching an opinion. It also states that the Secretary of State must include the option for the coroner to record “no discernible factor”, or equivalent, as the cause of suicide. The coroner therefore would not be obliged to attempt to record the cause—or causes—of suicide if this cannot be discerned. The Bill also provides that the ONS must publish opinions recorded by the coroner on an annual basis. That challenge that we all seek to resolve on the reliability of data where the reasons for suicide are often complex and may not be conclusive is whether this means of collection will provide the reliability that we absolutely need.

Perhaps I can use the opportunity to raise a few points with the Minister. In April 2022, the Government published a discussion paper and issued a call for evidence to help the development of a new cross-government 10-year plan for mental health and well-being in England. As part of this, they sought feedback on suicide prevention and committed to developing a separate suicide prevention plan. The consultation has now closed. Can the Minister advise your Lordships’ House when the new government plan for mental health and well-being will be published?

In July this year, Gillian Keegan, then Minister for Care and Mental Health, said that the Government would consider the evidence base for the causes of suicide as part of the development of the new suicide prevention plan. Can the Minister update the House on this as well? Public Health England previously piloted real-time suicide monitoring systems in areas that had existing surveillance systems in place. Can the Minister advise on what progress, if any, has been made to create a national real-time suicide surveillance system?

In closing, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part not just in this debate but in the debates that have come before and doubtless will come again on how we help to support people—adults and children—not to succumb and find that their only way out is suicide. I am extremely grateful to the right reverend Prelate for leading this debate today and introducing this Bill.

Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Baroness Merron Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Glenarthur (Con)]

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Stephen, who spoke earlier, I live on what is often known as Royal Deeside. I know from a very brief journey home only yesterday that my deep sense of sadness at the death of the Queen is one shared by the entire Aberdeenshire community, rural and urban—a community of which the Royal Family is very much a part.

A deep loss is felt not only by those of us in the United Kingdom but, as other noble Lords have referred to, by others internationally. As an example, I will take one nation of the Commonwealth that the Queen was aware I knew well, and whose royal family I remain close to: Tonga. I know from personal messages the deep sense of sadness that its people feel. The late Queen was extremely fond of Tonga and its people; she kept in touch with the Royal Family and took a keen interest in the fortunes of that country.

On a personal note, as a former Army officer, I felt deeply proud that Her Majesty the Queen took the salute at my commissioning parade in 1963. I had the lucky honour to be an officer in the Queen’s Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, and to have participated in many royal duties in front of Her late Majesty, not least the unique Golden and Diamond Jubilee garden parties held at Balmoral. I thank God for a life lived to the full, for Her late Majesty’s deep and guiding faith, wisdom, sense of duty and steadfastness, and for the abiding inspiration that she has been to us all. May she rest in peace. God save the King.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, in death, as she did throughout her long life, Her Majesty the Queen is present in every aspect of our daily lives: on buses that say, “Thank you, Ma’am”, at their destinations; on billboards emblazoned with her regal image; and on social media, which is flooded with people changing their picture to a sketch of the Queen with Paddington Bear. As so many noble Lords have said, we are shocked by how deeply we have been affected. It is difficult to explain how the loss of a person you may or may never have met can have such a profound effect, but perhaps it is because we lost not only the person but that part of our lives that we thought was constant and safe, no matter what.

As a vice-president of Liberal Judaism, I want to express our deep gratitude for an exceptional life that was unfailingly devoted to the service of her people and every community in her realm. In their grief and sorrow, we wish a long life to His Majesty King Charles III and all the Royal Family.

Every week, in synagogues across the UK and the Commonwealth, Jews pray for the welfare of the Royal Family and all those who influence the quality of our national life. We have prayed for our sovereign lady, Queen Elizabeth—who has never fallen short—for 70 years, and this week, for the first time, we prayed for our sovereign, King Charles. That is continuity, and that is change.

This week, a special prayer written by our president was recited at Liberal synagogues throughout the country. I would like to share some of these words with noble Lords today:

“During the 70 years of her reign, during which she saw many upheavals and changes, she served her people with enduring devotion and grace, uniting races, creeds and tongues with outstretched hand and cheerful countenance … In times of turmoil and distress, she sought comfort from her faith and led by example, speaking truth, abiding by her oath of majesty, accepting the discipline of her sovereignty and serving God with humility and intent. She worked with abiding and conscientious duty for the good of all her people, overcoming her own trials and tribulations to unite us as one humanity, whose purpose it is to do God’s will for the good of all people … May her reign remain an example to guide King Charles with integrity and truth, promoting freedom, justice and righteousness, so that all may be blessed with prosperity and peace. We pray for the health and well-being of the new King.”


May her memory be for a blessing. Long live the King.

[Lord Blencathra (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great privilege to be able to take part in this tribute today. As the noble Lord, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, pointed out, everything that could be said has probably been said already by far greater people than me, but she has been my Queen all my life and I, possibly selfishly, do not want to leave this life myself without paying tribute to the greatest sovereign of all time.

I was born in May 1953, two weeks before the Coronation, and, like the vast majority of British people, I have known no other sovereign. As others have said, we knew this day was coming, but an irrational part of us wanted to think that with her extraordinary vitality she could somehow avoid the mortality of ordinary people. She seemed to me to be indestructible, and I was left shocked and speechless on Thursday.

I first took an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty as an officer cadet 60 years ago, and I think I have taken it about 12 times since then in the other place and in this noble House. From the first one as a junior soldier and then my parliamentary and Privy Council oaths, I always considered it not just a sacred duty but a source of pride.

I am afraid that I have no funny stories to tell about Her late Majesty, just that I was in terror after Privy Council meetings, when she always had an informal chat about the issues, and I was afraid she would ask me something about the obscure and complex order that we had passed and I would not have a clue about it.

Her late Majesty has rightly been described in this place and elsewhere as the rock or anchor of our democracy and constitution, and the words used again and again over the past two days describe her life as duty, selflessness, fortitude, service, humility, love, kindness, resilience, humour, fun, courage, faith and consistency. Some of us may aspire to some of those characteristics, but she embodied all of them.

Not only do I believe that those qualities come from the childhood teachings of the late Queen Mother and her father, George VI, but I credit a lot of it to her military service, since these are the same qualities that we see in our military. I suspect that her devotion to all things military and her colonel-in-chief roles were not done just because it was expected, but because she loved the military life and the military family, where she felt at home.

I know that in 1957 she said,

“I cannot lead you into battle”,


but I am certain that if she were a 20 year-old today, she would not settle to be an Army truck mechanic, important though that was at the time, but she would be a front-line soldier like Princes William and Harry and demand to serve in battle zones, probably in the cavalry, of course.

It was an extraordinary achievement for a young woman in 1952 to become the Head of State of the greatest democracy and constitutional monarchy in the world. For over 70 years as Head of State, she has never put a foot wrong, nor said a wrong word, while operating under one of the most complex, unwritten, convention-based constitutions of any country, and, right to the end, she fulfilled one of her most vital constitutional duties on Tuesday by appointing a new Prime Minister.

We can all cite a handful of US Presidents as possibly being great, but can anyone cite any country in the world whose presidential system has provided better Heads of State than our late sovereign, Queen Elizabeth? I speculate that if these political presidents had served more than their four or eight year and gone on for 10, 20, 50, or 70 years, they might not have been regarded as so great by the end of their period. In these days when political promises are regarded rather cynically, Her late Majesty was revered because she made a promise as a 21 year-old that,

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service”,


and she kept that promise faithfully for every day of the next 75 years.