Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Sandhurst and Lord Wolfson of Tredegar

Committee stage
Friday 5th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sandhurst (Con)]

My Lords, I will be very brief. Having listened to this, I am more and more persuaded that we must have reasons, because there will be no coroner’s inquest. We know that some doctors have misbehaved in the past, but that does not always come out. One needs to have a paper trail so that, if concerns start to arise about Dr X, we can see what Dr Y has been saying, as well as Dr X.

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I can be extremely brief, because of the confirmation given by the noble and learned Lord and also knowing that the substantive issues of domestic abuse, interpreters and various other matters will be dealt with in their appropriate place.

At the risk of underlining my reputation as a legal geek, I invite the noble and learned Lord’s attention to his Amendment 350, and in particular the Member’s Explanatory Statement. I understand the amendment, but I do not understand the statement. The amendment leaves out from “to” to end of the line and inserts “section 12(4) and (7)”, which are about “sharing of specialists’ opinions”. The Explanatory Statement says:

“This is a drafting change (consequential on subsection (4) being added to clause 12)”.


Now, Clause 12 already has a subsection (4), and the noble and learned Lord’s amendments to Clause 12 are to subsections (5) and (8). I do not know whether the Explanatory Statement has confused me and in fact the change is not consequential on a new subsection (4) being added but just stands in and of itself. It may be that I am confused unnecessarily, but if the noble and learned Lord could just clear up that minor point, I would be grateful.