Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department considered the legal opinion by Tom Cross KC and Ruth Kennedy entitled In the Matter of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, published on 28 April 2025, during the development of the document entitled Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: ECHR memorandum, published on 2 May 2025.

It was not possible to consider the legal opinion entitled In the Matter of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill during the development of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: ECHR memorandum, as the legal opinion was published after the European Convention on Human Rights Memorandum (ECHR) memorandum was finalised for publication.

The ECHR memorandum sets out the Government’s position on the bill’s compatibility with the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Government will keep the bill’s compatibility with the Human Rights Act 1998 under review as it progresses through Parliament, and issue a further ECHR memorandum if appropriate.