Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 12th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, as one of the younger Members of your Lordships’ House, I start by thanking the hundreds of citizens of this nation who have taken time out to write to us or email us. I have read some of the very personal letters that have been sent to us, and I want to thank them all, regardless of whether they were in support of the Bill or against it.

I want to thank the MP for Spen Valley, Kim Leadbeater, for introducing this Bill, and thank the Members of the other place who worked on the committee. I see one of them stood here in the Chamber: my good friend Tom Gordon, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough.

For me, the concept of choice is always important, and I speak in favour of this legislation because it is fundamentally about choice and compassion. This Bill is not about compelling anyone to act against their conscience; it is about giving individuals and families the ability to decide how they spend their final days, whether they have faith or no faith. Let us be clear: today we have heard speakers who are in principle against people being assisted to take their own life, but that discussion has been held previously. People already have that choice, which is simply exercised by leaving this nation and going to places like Switzerland. It is therefore time that we in your Lordships’ House moved on to see how we can assist those who want to exercise that choice to do so in our nation, rather than limiting it to those who can afford to travel abroad.

Let me be clear: I would not personally choose assisted dying, and nor would any member of my family. Our faith teaches us to endure life until its natural end, and we respect that. But my personal decision or that of my family should not mean that others who hold different beliefs and make different choices are denied the ability to act according to their own conscience.

As a society, we already grant a great deal of choice in how we treat a person after death. Families decide whether to bury or cremate. In some faiths, including my own, and for our Jewish friends, there is a duty to bury as soon as possible. Others may take more time; some choose a more natural, environmentally friendly option; some choose to share a grave with a loved one. In each case, the law allows space for those decisions to reflect conscience, culture and personal beliefs. If we grant such choice after death, why do we withhold choice in the last days of life? Why do we say to those suffering unbearably that they must endure their final hours in a way they would not choose, even when the medical profession can provide safe and compassionate assistance? The Bill does not compel anyone to end their life; it does not diminish the sanctity of life; it simply allows those who, after careful consideration and with proper safeguards, wish to have control over dying, and to do so with dignity and without the fear of criminalisation.

I will follow the passage of the Bill carefully and remain open-minded to amendments at later stages if they genuinely enhance its intentions. At its heart, this is a question of individual freedom. A central pillar of liberalism is the freedom to choose for oneself, provided it does no harm to others. Laws should not enforce needless pain but should offer dignity, compassion and, above all, choice. If we honour freedom in life, we must honour it at life’s end.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, put our record our thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, for the work she has done to date and for the further work I hope she will do in future.

I follow up on the comments made by the noble Baroness opposite on not only schools, but on youth workers and services in particular. Detached youth workers are in a prime position to befriend and seek the confidence of young people who may have been victims of grooming gangs. It overlaps with education, but it is really important that we do not silo things into Home Office affairs and education.

Often, victims are not only young people but vulnerable people. That is what I have seen from my experience of working in youth services for the last 30 years. People who were grooming were picking on people because they were vulnerable. One vulnerability is people fleeing domestic violence. Often, you will see that people are away from where they used to live, and in some communities they have been very visible—that is, people can see they are from outside. I seek assurances from the inquiry on the group-based gangs that we will also seek out working alongside refuges for women in particular to see whether they can bring victims forward. I am concerned that in some communities, because of the issue around honour, women will want to remain silent because they just want to put that horrific past behind them. They also have to be brought forward to be able to tell their story and hold those perpetrators to account.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes an extremely valuable contribution. I agree with him that we need to look not just at teaching staff but youth staff and other contacts within the church and community that come into contact with young people. The purpose of all that is to give victims the confidence to be able to talk about those things. The mandatory reporting measures that we have put in the Crime and Policing Bill will make it a responsibility for individuals to then report that to the police for further investigation.

The noble Lord makes a very important point about confidence in bringing forward historic sexual abuse issues, particularly honour-based sexual abuse issues. He will know that the operation I mentioned earlier, Beaconport, is looking at historic abuse. Over 1,200 cases are now being surfaced. They will be investigated. There are 216 priority cases within that. If there are further cases to be brought forward, they should be reported for further investigation of a historic nature. My colleagues in the National Crime Agency will be detailing more about that, because that is an operational matter for them, later this month.

Child Sexual Abuse and Rape Gangs Inquiry

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

One of the key recommendations from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, was that we review convictions of victims and look at how victims have experienced the system. We have accepted that recommendation in full, and we will be bringing forward measures in the Crime and Policing Bill very shortly, which is finishing its progress in the other place this very day. It will be with this House, at least for Second Reading, before the Summer Recess, I hope. We will have amendments to that Bill in Committee stage that will deal with victim support.

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the Casey review, but I urge the Government to take every opportunity possible to implement Alexis Jay’s recommendations—not only in the policing Bill but in the Bill already in this House, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. There are opportunities in there that we can implement in those Bills. The victims of those horrific crimes cannot wait any longer. This Government and this House should be leading that fight to get justice for those victims of rape gangs, which existed right across the country.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right, which is why, when this Government came into office in July last year, we looked at the Alexis Jay recommendations, determined that no action had been taken for the previous 20 months on those and determined to take action on them. That is why, in the Crime and Policing Bill, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and other measures that we have brought forward, we have met every recommendation in that report, and we will make sure they are implemented in full.

Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s support. I was just checking what my right honourable friend the Home Secretary said on the Statement in the House of Commons:

“On support for victims, my right honourable friend the Health Secretary—


that is, the Health Secretary for England—

“will fund additional training for mental health staff in schools on identifying and supporting children and young people who have experienced trauma, exploitation and abuse”.

On broader victim support, the Home Secretary drew attention to additional funding for mental health support in schools and has also ensured that the independent commission will gather and assess victim support as part of its remit once the chair is established and the terms of reference are determined.

The point that the noble Baroness made about the UK nature of this inquiry is extremely important. I have responsibility for England and Wales, and the Department of Health has responsibility for England, but, obviously, some matters are devolved: policing in Scotland and in Northern Ireland; and health in Wales, Scotland and in Northern Ireland. I want to ensure—and we have given a mandate to the potential chair in due course—that it deals with all the devolved Administrations, consults them and looks at lessons which can be applied, with the consent of the devolved Administrations, on a UK-wide basis.

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, I fully support the comments of my noble friend Lady Brinton, particularly around the lack of action previously seen around the Alexis Jay report, but I will press the Minister on one of the points that my noble friend highlighted, around bringing in a Hillsborough-style law that would put a duty of candour on local authorities. The Minister did not respond to that, and I think it is really important, because if we are to bring in that law, if we are to have this inquiry and it is to have results, then we need that duty of candour.

In response to what I heard from the noble Baroness, I will also talk about charities in places such as my home city of Sheffield. The organisation I worked for for 30 years, Sheffield Futures, was the lead organisation for CSE in that city, and I just make one plea. There are lots of accusations about certain communities. If we are to get justice, any police officer will tell you that they have to work within those communities. Alienating communities will not deliver justice, because I tell you now, from 30 years’ experience in youth service in South Yorkshire, there will be victims of South Asian origin as well, but because of the issue around honour—and colleagues in here will know what that means—some of those victims have remained silent. It is upon us all to make sure that those victims also have a voice.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising this issue. I extend my apologies to the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton; I am trying to cover a range of issues in a very short time.

On the question of the duty of candour and the Hillsborough law, the noble Lord and the noble Baroness will know that the UK Government had a manifesto commitment to introduce that legislation. As yet, it has not been introduced, but I know that work is being done behind the scenes to do that. As a supporter of the Liverpool Football Club, and somebody who, when a Member of Parliament, had constituents who were victims of the Hillsborough incident, I know that that will be very welcome legislation. It is still being worked on in government terms, and will be published in due course.

The noble Lord mentioned the support of voluntary organisations. That is extremely important. I would hope that the prospective chair, whoever he or she will be, will reach out and look at the role of the voluntary sector as well.

The noble Lord is absolutely right to say that victims know no ethnicity. There are perpetrators from every walk of life and every religious and ethnic group, including white British, and there are victims from every group. We have a particular focus on organised gangs, and that has been prevalent in certain places. The noble Baroness, Lady Casey, has made recommendations about ethnic data collection, which we will look at and which will help inform in future what is happening for both victim and perpetrator, but the noble Lord is absolutely right to raise this issue today.