Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Baroness Berger and Lord Goodman of Wycombe

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

My Lords, there is an unreality about this debate that gives rise to a question for the sponsor of the Bill and the Minister. The unreality is this: the noble Lord, Lord Birt, has made the case for his amendments, and my noble friend Lord Harper and others have made the case against them, but there is hung on this whole debate an assumption that the NHS will deliver assisted dying. I remind the Committee that there is no guarantee of that in the Bill.

If noble Lords would kindly turn to Clause 41(4), they will see that the only reference to the National Health Service is:

“Regulations under this section may for example provide that specified references in the National Health Service Act 2006 to the health service continued”,


et cetera. That is the only reference to the NHS in the Bill. We do not know whether the NHS will or will not deliver assisted dying services. It is an extraordinary weakness in the Bill.

[Baroness Berger (Lab)]

The noble Lord and I sat on the Select Committee on the Bill. He may recall that I pressed the Minister specifically on this point: to clarify who would be delivering an assisted dying service in this country should the Bill be accepted. Only after a number of questions did the Minister acknowledge that it was the Government’s intention that the NHS would commission an assisted dying service. He could not clarify or confirm whether it would be delivered by the NHS, the private sector, the voluntary sector or charitable organisations and, if it was the private sector, whether it would be allowed to generate any profit. We are still unclear. It is very challenging to us, and I hope the Minister in her response might be able to give us further clarity on that important point.

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Berger, is quite correct. That is exactly what happened in the Select Committee. For my sins, I sit on a surfeit of committees, including the Delegated Powers Committee, which drew attention to this very deficit in the Bill. So the question for the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, is: since the Minister was questioned in the Select Committee by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, in the weeks that have followed, has he had any guarantee from the Government that they will ensure that the Secretary of State by regulation ensures that the NHS delivers voluntary assisted dying services? When the Minister replies to the debate, can she cast some light on this matter so that we know whether or not the proposal that the noble Lord, Lord Birt, has put forward and my noble friend has opposed really has any basis in reality?