Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to participate in this timely and important debate. I start by congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, on bringing forward the Bill.

Like many noble Lords, I have been deeply moved by the correspondence I have received on this matter; it takes me firmly back to my time as a constituency MP. But equally, in this week of all weeks, it has underlined the necessity of your Lordships’ House to continue to engage with the general public; that is something I think Sir David would have expected us to do.

At a personal level, it has also enabled me to engage in an interesting debate with probably my best friend—my father, the Reverend Lancaster. It will come as no surprise that he has already been in touch to respond to the earlier comments of the noble Lord, Lord Vinson, that Christ’s death on the cross was an assisted suicide courtesy of a friendly Roman centurion, which I could not help but notice caused a certain movement on the Benches in front of me. I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Winston, for his amendment, as it delivers much clarity in the language.

In 2015, in my previous life in the House of Commons, I voted against the assisted dying Bill at Second Reading. Since then, like other noble Lords, I have experienced my own mother’s death and while, thanks to excellent palliative care, it was, I hope, relatively pain-free, it has forced me to accept that improved palliative care does not negate the potential need for Bills such as this. They are, in fact, two quite distinct and separate issues.

In her moving speech, much of which I agreed with, the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, was keen to argue that the objective of the Bill has overwhelming public support. She may well be right. She will forgive me, I hope, if I say that I am unmoved by any argument that depends on opinion polls. While I have the greatest respect for public opinion when it is expressed in a democratic election or referendum, legislation by opinion poll is a dangerous game. If your Lordships’ House were to follow that route, we would be legislating to bring back the death penalty. Equally, while I support the Bill in principle—and, let us be clear, that is all we are being asked to do at Second Reading—I continue to have concerns over its application in practice; in particular, in the area of safeguarding.

The safeguards included in the Bill represent an improvement on earlier Bills, but I still have deep concerns—in particular, over the risk of coercion and abuse by relatives for their own gain. Ideally, individuals would make their own autonomous decision about ending their life calmly and rationally, but, of course, in the pressurised, emotionally charged world we live in, that might be quite different in reality. I have little doubt that few relatives harbour malevolent thoughts towards the terminally ill, but their own emotional distress can be a source of pressure in itself. Establishing whether coercion, either deliberate or otherwise, has been a factor in an individual’s decision to ask a doctor to administer lethal medication seems to me to be incredibly difficult to establish through just a couple of independent interviews.

This is the principal area in which I feel the Bill falls short and, should it pass Second Reading today, it is an area that would need to be strengthened, and due consideration given to what kind of experience, medical or otherwise, might be needed.

Sentencing

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Monday 23rd May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sadiq Khan]

I remember that the manifesto on which the hon. Lady stood for election and won her seat stated that the Conservatives would provide the same number of prison places we would.

The Department’s impact assessment gives the game away. The sentence discount plan provides the Lord Chancellor with the lion’s share of his reduction in prison places. The impact assessment shows that £3,400 of the overall savings from the 6,000 fewer prison places that will be needed as a result of the sentencing package will come from the planned increase in the maximum available discount to 50%. I accept that that equates to £130 million a year, but it demonstrates that the Government know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

If the right hon. Gentleman expects the House to take his arguments seriously, perhaps he will explain why he and his party failed to make any submission to that Green Paper.

[Sadiq Khan]

Of all the points that have been made, that is the silliest. The hon. Gentleman has been in the House long enough to know that it is silly to expect a Member to respond to every consultation document when he has other opportunities to make his views known, such as asking questions of the Justice Secretary on the Floor of the House, speaking to the Justice Secretary, and speaking to the Opposition.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Kenneth Clarke]

We have had an unfortunate instance, but we will obviously investigate each of those tragic cases. Unfortunately, there are always extremely vulnerable people in young offender institutions, and steps have to be taken to protect them against self-harm. I have no reason to believe that anything has changed significantly that connects these deaths. I assure the hon. Gentleman that each and every one of them will be carefully considered to see whether anything went wrong or whether something can be improved.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

T4. Does the Secretary of State share my concern and that of my constituents that prisoners are not spending their time inside constructively? Will any future Bill address that issue by ensuring that prisoners spend more time at work than in their cells?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Tuesday 29th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Blunt]

What we want to do is to begin to transfer responsibility to local authority areas, so that they begin to appreciate the cost of custody. At the moment, youth custody is extremely expensive, but it comes as a free good to local authorities. We want to incentivise them to deliver earlier intervention to divert people away from custody and, indeed, from youth crime in the first place.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

17. How many prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection have been released to date.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Crispin Blunt)]

As at 17 November 2010, 187 prisoners had been released into the community from indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection or detention for public protection, including offenders who have subsequently been recalled to custody.

[Mark Lancaster]

I am grateful for the answer, but it highlights the logjam that IPP prisoners are causing in our prison system, so how does the Minister intend to address that problem?

[Mr Blunt]

When those sentences were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and implemented in 2005, the then Government estimated that there would be 900 such prisoners; there are now more than 6,000, and more than 3,000 of them are beyond tariff. [Interruption.] I can understand why the shadow Justice Secretary is ashamed of the record in that area. That is why there has been an increase in the size of the Parole Board; and that is why we are consulting on proposals to raise the tariff to a 10-year determinate sentence before an IPP can be enforced, and to examine the Parole Board test. Those are the proposals in the Green Paper on which we are consulting.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Nick Herbert)]

I am answering this question because I am the only one in the village. [Laughter.] I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for the fact that his question was transferred. The Equality Act 2010 removed the express prohibition on civil partnership registrations taking place on religious premises. In response to that amendment of the law, the Government are committed to talking to those with a key interest in how to take this forward. That will include consideration of whether civil partnerships should be allowed to include religious readings, music and symbols, and the implications for marriage will have to be considered as part of that.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

T10. Can the Minister tell the House whether his Department has undertaken any study of the comparative costs of trials in magistrates courts and Crown courts?

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Tuesday 15th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Blunt]

Of course public protection is an absolute priority. We inherited good MAPPA—multi-agency public protection arrangements—from the previous Administration to deal with the sort of offenders who are released from Wakefield. It is right that probation services and all other agencies that are involved in MAPPA are closely engaged in delivering public protection with regard to such offenders.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

I have visited the probation service in Milton Keynes and pay tribute to its tremendous work. Under the previous Government, however, the number of staff at headquarters ballooned, while front-line staff numbers remained static or even reduced. Might this Government reverse that trend?

[Mr Blunt]

Yes.