Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown and Lord Polak

Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Polak (Con)]

My Lords, I support the amendments in this group, especially the one from my noble friend Lord Evans. I was not going to speak but I was moved by what the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, said about her father.

I am not a Luddite. My mother passed away in July 2023 from brain cancer, and this debate has reminded me of the Zoom call we had to look at the next stage of her treatment. I was here in London; my sister was with my mother in Liverpool, where she was lying in bed unable to speak. The nurse who was looking at the next stage of treatment for her was in Margate, had never met my mother, and was asking questions for over an hour to which mother could not reply. I have listened to this whole debate, and if we cannot put face-to-face consultation in the Bill, we are doing a great injustice to many people.

[Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (DUP)]

My Lords, earlier in the debate, the noble Baroness, Lady Jay of Paddington, intervened to say that she could not understand why, having talked so much, we had not actually talked about terminal illness. If the noble Baroness remains in her place, she will be here for the fifth group of amendments, on terminal illness, and there will certainly be a lot of discussion then of that issue. In fact, if we were speaking to that group of amendments now, we would be told by the Whip to address instead the amendments before us.

In the light of my experience as a minister, dealing with the general public from another side, I gently say to the noble Baroness, who was advocating for online assessments, that, if they are so perfect, why are so many mistakes made? Should we just dismiss those mistakes?