Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town Excerpts

Friday 30th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I had not intended to say anything, but I was provoked—in a nice way—by the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, and his advice, which was well meant, to the sponsor of the Bill, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. I agree with him, but I think a bit more work is required.

I referred earlier to the letter that the noble and learned Lord sent to Members of the House. I urge him to test his mailing list, because it did not go to all Members; I received a copy of it only from another Member, and it would be helpful if we all received a copy. I now hear from my noble friend Lord Deben that he has not received it at all.

I have two things to say. First, I absolutely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, about the Delegated Powers Committee’s recommendations. It was pretty scathing about the number of powers the Bill gives to Ministers with very little oversight. If I am being fair, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, has engaged extensively with the recommendations of the committee in what he has set out. That is the good bit.

But I do not think the noble and learned Lord has really taken on board the point the committee made because he has largely, as I see in his amendments, preserved the Bill’s delegated skeletal architecture. Rather than limiting executive power and putting safeguards and limits in the Bill, he has added in all sorts of things, such as scrutiny and consultation, at the back end. He has not actually got the point, which is that the Bill should not have those delegated powers in the first place. Exactly as the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, said, I humbly suggest accepting what the committee said and following its recommendations. That would be helpful.

The second point is about pace. The Delegated Powers Committee reported in September last year, and only half way through Committee we got a letter from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, setting out his response to it. My experience as a Minister was that if we had received the report from the Delegated Powers Committee, as the Minister I would have been expected to have my response ready at the start of Committee—or, frankly, Members of your Lordships’ House would have stood up and said some very disobliging things.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)]

The noble Lord would have had a whole department and civil servants behind him at that time.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I have two points to make on that intervention from the noble Baroness. First, on several occasions the noble and learned Lord has made reference to quite a significant number of officials that he has had working with him, helping him draft clauses and so forth. If the argument is that that is still not enough resource, that rather supports my contention—which I have made from the beginning—that the extent and nature of this legislation makes it absolutely not suitable for a Private Member’s Bill, and it should have been a government Bill. As I said, the noble and learned Lord has had extensive support from not just one but a number of government departments in helping him draft it.

My second and final point is on the issues that have arisen so far in Committee, particularly the issues that have arisen on Clause 1, which I think is why it is relevant to bring it up on the Clause 1 stand part debate. The noble and learned Lord referenced them in his letter, but he has not yet been in a position to set out what his amendments are going to be. He said that he will make them available as soon as he possibly can. That is good, and I welcome that, but, until we see them, we are not in a position to know whether further amendments need to be tabled for later in Committee or on Report. I finish by saying that I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Rooker. The extent to which we can now make progress is going to be largely governed by the extent to which the noble and learned Lord the sponsor of the Bill engages with the very fair criticisms that have been made across the Committee. We will listen carefully to what he says in response to this debate and in subsequent groups.