Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Frost and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I have four amendments which constitute the entirety of this group: Amendments 34, 121, 138 and 153. I am very grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox of Buckley and Lady Lawlor, and the noble Lord, Lord Harper, for putting their name to these amendments.

I will begin by making a purely process point. Were the underlying change I propose to find favour, as the explanatory statement on the Marshalled List makes clear, a large number of textual amendments would in fact be needed to ensure internal coherence within the Bill. For the convenience of the House, I have not tabled all those amendments now. In this sense, my amendments are exploratory and probing. The four specific amendments I have chosen, which are on the Marshalled List, have been chosen because they represent the first occasion on which a particular type of change would be required.

To summarise, Amendment 34 represents the first occasion in the Bill in which the phrase

“assistance to end their own life”

occurs; Amendment 121 is similarly the first occasion in which the phrase “voluntary assisted dying commissioner” occurs; Amendment 138 is the first occasion in which the phrase “assisted dying review panel” occurs; and Amendment 153 is the first occasion in which the simple word “assistance” occurs: a word that is not in fact defined in isolation but is taken to be short for the phrase “provision of assistance to a person to end their own life”.

Let me now turn to the substance of these amendments. I put them forward for two major underlying reasons. First, it is bad for us as legislators to attempt to legislate in such ambiguous language. Secondly, such language substantively carries real risks for at least some of those who may wish to avail themselves of the provisions of this Bill or have it put to them that they should.

All these amendments have one thing in common. They would replace phrases including the word “assisted” or “assistance” with something much clearer—an explicit reference to what is actually provided for in the Bill, the provision of

“medical help to commit suicide by provision of lethal drugs”.

I was aware when I tabled these amendments—some noble Lords have subsequently mentioned this to me—that the phrase “commit suicide” raises particular wider issues. I understand that and I will come back to it, but let me first proceed with the text as tabled.

First, it is a well-understood principle in drafting legislation—the noble Lord, Lord Deben, made this point earlier today—that it should be unambiguously clear. In this Bill, we have a phrase which covers a wide range of possible meanings. The core phrase,

“assistance to end their own life”,

could be read in a wide variety of ways. It could be read as meaning making somebody comfortable in their last hours. It could be read as withdrawing food and drink in a medical setting. It could even be read as an actual act of killing by another party at the request of the individual concerned. It could be read as many other things too, including of course the thing that is actually provided for by this Bill.

The polling about this Bill and the discussion around it shows there are many misunderstandings about what it does and what it allows. Surveys and experimental research show that public responses to questions about legality and support are very sensitive to the wording chosen. That is why it is important to be clear. My amendment would do that by providing clear language. It is possibly language that would be regarded by some as forceful, but nevertheless it is clear.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I apologise for intervening, but this is quite important to the debate. Is the noble Lord saying that his amendments—I take it they are simply exemplar ones—would change the meaning of the Bill, or are they just for the purposes of, as it were, better public understanding?

[Lord Frost (Non-Afl)]

Yes, they are intended to clarify what the Bill actually provides for. I will explain further. The provision of medical help to commit suicide by the provision of lethal drugs is what the Bill does. That is what it does and that is what it should say that it does. I would say in passing that it is particularly important, since the Bill leaves so much to delegated powers, that we should be unambiguous about the particular power that is provided for.

Secondly, this House and this Parliament should always be clear to ourselves what we are doing when we are legislating. We should try and avoid euphemism. Where we deal with difficult topics, I think it is good to avoid distancing ourselves from uncomfortable realities in legislation by using abstractions. I refer to the 2024 guidance to parliamentary draftsmen which says:

“Write in modern, standard English using vocabulary which reflects ordinary general usage”.


It goes on to say you should

“use precise and concrete words rather than vague and abstract words”.

It is noticeable the most common term in this Bill for the activity for which it provides is the single word “assistance”. The common meaning of that word, I think it is fair to say, does not include providing for the death of an individual. In this Bill, that word has become a euphemistic term of art. Indeed, it is easy to imagine it becoming a jargon word in which a practitioner says to a patient, “Have you thought of asking for assistance?”, as a comfortable way to suggest to vulnerable people that taking their own life might not be something to be too concerned about, or even in the worst case, almost hide from them in the initial discussion what is actually being discussed.

We can see the distancing function of this word, the Latinate “assistance”, if we replace it, as my amendment would, with the Anglo-Saxon “help”. If the Bill used “help”, the jarring nature of the contrast between that word and the action that is provided for by the Bill would, I think, be too great to bear. I will not go into detail for reasons of time, but exactly the same concern arises from the Bill’s use of the phrase, “approved substance” when what is meant is a lethal drug.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The purpose of making the amendments advanced by the noble Lord, Lord Frost, is clarity. We have to look at this not as some pamphlet but as a piece of legislation. The key thing is that it conveys what it means. The relevant words in the Bill at the moment are:

“A terminally ill person in England or Wales … may, on request, be provided in England or Wales with assistance to end their own life in accordance with sections 8 to 30”.


In my view, that could not be clearer. It is saying that the Bill is about providing assistance to end their own life in accordance with Sections 8 to 30.

The noble Lord, Lord Frost, wishes to change the words

“assistance to end their own life”

to

“medical help to commit suicide by provision of lethal drugs”.

The language of the noble Lord, Lord Frost, is both more technical and much looser. Simply as a matter of legal drafting, the draft as it is at the moment is much clearer and accurately describes what would happen. It is not my drafting or that of the sponsor in the other place; it is the drafting of a professional draftsman and I strongly urge the Committee to stick with the non-emotional, accurate, clear drafting that is there already.

[Lord Frost (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I thank all those who have supported and engaged with the substance of my amendments. I think we have had a good debate. I also thank the Minister for acknowledging that these amendments would not cause significant or major workability issues—I think her words were something like that—at least on a first viewing. That is important.

I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the sponsor of the Bill, but I think we will have to disagree on what language is clear and what is not. I continue to believe that the form of words in my amendments is much clearer and sharper, whereas the language in the Bill covers a multitude of possible actions.

To conclude, I continue to believe that there is an important and dangerous ambiguity at the heart of the Bill, which we can clear up by focusing on the language. Therefore, we will probably have to return to this—if we ever get that far. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Product Regulation and Metrology Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Frost and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

2nd reading
Tuesday 8th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

Is it the noble Lord’s case that the Government should be prevented in any case from having the same regulations as the EU?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

I will come on to that. I am trying to get clarity about the purpose of this Bill and why it needs to go further than the powers we already have.

My third question is: can the Minister explain the purpose of the separate provision in Clause 1(2) and the situation it is designed to deal with? I will table amendments to this and other clauses.

Why are any of these provisions necessary beyond simple administrative convenience? The answer is that this Bill is entirely in tune with the lack of clarity that so often surrounded the detail of our relationship with the EU. It is simply the beginning of a path on which, without voters noticing—this is my point: we need clarity—we slip back, closer to single market-like trade arrangements.

Obviously, it is already true that, if a British company wants to export to the EU, its products must comply with EU law. What these provisions would do over time is require producers covered by them to produce in the UK, for the UK, to those EU standards, and make those EU standards the only legal standards on the British market, even when they are not good standards, or are complex or costly. This set-up is a core element of the way the single market works.

Simply mirroring those EU laws does not itself improve trade with the EU. There will still be customs and regulatory paperwork in those circumstances. The only way of eliminating that is to satisfy the EU authorities that our laws are in fact the same as theirs, and I suggest that they are very unlikely to be satisfied without the usual panoply of Commission and court enforcement—subordination once again to the EU authorities. After all, what other way is there for the EU to decide whether our laws genuinely mirror its laws, or to settle any disputes arising?

My further question to the Minister is this. Can he explain how he sees these clauses working in practice? What actual trade frictions does he see being removed as a result of using them? Will he give a commitment that, in conformity with Labour’s policy not to rejoin the single market, the Government will not agree to subordination to EU law or EU-style enforcement?

The Bill also constitutes another step—and this is rather unfortunate—in using the Northern Ireland arrangements to keep this whole country in line with EU rules in certain areas, as we had always feared. Once the previous Government had given up trying to dismantle or override the Northern Ireland protocol and instead agreed to support and enshrine it as the Windsor Framework, something like this Bill became extremely probable. The previous Government were at least discreet in discouraging officials from proposing reforms to goods standards for fear of complicating the Windsor Framework arrangements. The new Government are quite open about it. Their own briefing prepared for the King’s Speech says:

“EU changes to product regulation only apply in Northern Ireland, resulting in divergence within the UK internal market as EU laws are updated. This Bill gives the Government specific powers to make changes to GB legislation to manage divergence and take a UK-wide approach”.


The aim is absolutely explicit. So as we always feared, the Windsor Framework is being used as a tool to inhibit reform and change within GB—not that I think this Government plan to do much of that anyway—and to keep this country in the tractor beam pull of EU laws and rules without having any say in them. Does the Minister agree with his own briefing?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

The noble Baroness is probably familiar with my view on the subject: I do not agree with that. I think that it would have been much preferable to proceed with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill that was then proceeded with in 2022, but that is really not to the point now. We have the situation that we have, and the effect of the Windsor Framework, whatever view one takes of it, is to create a massive incentive to push for GB rules to be kept in sync with those of the EU and in Northern Ireland. That is one of the effects that I think this Bill will create.

To finish up, I have a couple of technical questions. The internal market Act has already been raised.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

Will the noble Lord give way?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

Nobody else has given way, but go on.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The noble Lord led me to believe by the way he answered my question that he would tell us whether he took the view that the Bill should positively prevent alignment in any area. Is he willing to answer the question now?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

I have not finished my remarks yet. Under the internal market Act, goods that are legally on sale in Northern Ireland—those meeting EU standards—may be sold anywhere in the UK already. That is one of the provisions of that Act. One might wonder about the point of this panoply of rules when we already have the internal market Act. It would seem unnecessary, unless perhaps the Government are concerned that the Windsor Framework might require them to bring in elements of Northern Ireland to Great Britain’s border at some point. Again, I wonder whether the Minister could answer that question.

The Government clearly want to go down this road because, whatever they say now, they want to make eventually rejoining the single market and customs union easier. I know from reactions to what I have been saying that many noble Lords regard this direction of travel as a good thing; they doubt this country’s ability to prosper as an independent country with its own rules and laws. I am afraid there is nothing to be done about those who have that opinion. To others who want this country to be a global trader, but without necessarily having our own rules for every single area, I say there is an alternative. It is one more consistent with our global aspirations and membership of the CPTPP, which the Government want to support.

The alternative is to make this country open to the best standards globally—that is my answer to the question that has been raised a couple of times—and to recognise that any goods produced in high-standard, well-regulated economies, such as the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and the EU, would be safe to put on our market. I accept not just the CE standard but similar conformity and standards from other developed economies, and where necessary we can develop our own. This is not just a fantasy; it is what the MHRA is already doing with its new international recognition procedure for medical products. Can the Minister explain why it is not possible to proceed in this way instead?

My speech has been quite long and I will wind up now, but there are important points about the purpose of this Bill that will shape the statutory instruments that will come before us at some point that need to be properly understood. We will put forward amendments in Committee to test the thinking behind some of these provisions and their purpose, and to perhaps reshape some of the more unsatisfactory elements of this Bill. To conclude, I have deep concern about the direction of travel and the direction in which this will take our regulatory framework. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s answers to my questions.