Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Baroness Coffey and Baroness Cash

Committee stage
Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Coffey (Con)]

My Lords, I have Amendment 68A. I am conscious that I asked the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, whether lasting power of attorney can be used. I am pleased to say that, in the debate, he said no. However, I am concerned that we may start to see quite a lot of case law emerge with this Bill if it becomes an Act. It is therefore really important that we start to put the level of protections into the Bill, as has just also been suggested by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger.

The reason I am particularly keen on the lasting power of attorney issue to be put into the Bill is in recognition that this could become something that people—I recognise that these are people who are getting towards the end of their life and may have less than six months to live—would expect, if they had already transferred their decisions to a person acting with an LPA, in order to start making these decisions. However, I think the sentiment of the Committee, and certainly that expressed by the noble and learned Lord as the sponsor of the Bill, is that that should not be the case. That is why I particularly want to see this in the Bill.

I appreciate that I do not have a Bill team of civil servants to say whether this is precisely how it should be addressed, but I hope that it is been sufficiently comprehensive, also considering Sections 9 and 11 of the other Act, to make sure that, if somebody is to make this decision, it has to be wholly and exclusively their own. It cannot be done within fluctuating conditions where people interchange on who is making the decision; it must be just the one person whose life it is who considers whether to take their own life.

[Baroness Cash (Con)]

My Lords, I support this group of amendments for a specific reason. I tried to ask the Minister this question during their closing speech last week, but there was not time. The Equality and Human Rights Commission gave evidence at the Select Committee—I declare an interest that at the time I was a commissioner, but am no longer—in writing and orally, expressing grave concern about the adequacy of the equality impact assessment. The points coming up in support of this group raise real questions around this.

I ask the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, to say when we will see addressed the gaps identified in that evidence given by Alasdair Henderson, a commissioner at the EHRC, and in a follow-up letter written to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, identifying specifically where the EHRC was concerned. When will we see a follow-up to that? It seems to me that many of the points in this and subsequent groups are about the vulnerabilities of individuals because of certain protected characteristics and the lack of protection for them. The EHRC has expressed no position on this Bill but is very concerned about it. I think the same applies to many Members of this House. We need answers to these questions to inform this debate fully.