Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the current law permitting mentally competent adults to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment has ever been proven inadequate in the courts to protect vulnerable people from being pressured to end their life prematurely.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We have not seen evidence from the courts that the current provisions permitting mentally competent adults to refuse life-sustaining treatment provide inadequate protection for vulnerable people.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent research from the UK's Assisted Dying Coalition, published on 8 February, which found that more than one person a week now travels from the UK to Switzerland to end their life; and in light of that research, whether they plan to review the UK's assisted dying law.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
It remains the Government’s view that any change to the law in this area in England and Wales is an issue of conscience and a matter for Parliament to decide rather than one for Government policy.
Parliament has not so far voted to legalise assisted suicide in any circumstances.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to the European Medicines Agency's report on the Nobivac Leptospirosis 4 vaccine on breeding dogs with particular regard to the high mortality rate.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The European Medicine’s Agency publishes the Veterinary Pharmacovigilance Public Bulletin. This document provides an update on pharmacovigilance issues relating to products authorised at an EU level. The March 2018 edition reports that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use (CVMP) has requested the marketing authorisation holder for Nobivac L4 Suspension for Injection for Dogs to provide a report focusing on all adverse events involving death or euthanasia. This report is still being assessed. At the current time, the CVMP considers that the benefits of use of this vaccine in preventing serious infection continue to outweigh the risks.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by what criteria requests for access to anonymised track injury and euthanasia data for research purposes will be assessed.
Answered by George Eustice
As set out during Defra’s Post Implementation Review of the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010, the Government expects the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) to begin publishing from early next year annual aggregate injury and euthanasia statistics from GBGB tracks, and annual summary statistics for the number of GBGB registered greyhounds that leave the sport. The figures will cover the preceding calendar year and, for dogs that leave the sport each year, the details will include by what method. The GBGB will begin publishing both sets of figures by the end of March 2018. Access to anonymized track injury and euthanasia data will be considered by GBGB’s Welfare Standing Committee and Defra for bona fide research purposes.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) by what date he expects the Greyhound Board of Great Britain to begin publishing summary statistics for the number of dogs that leave the industry each year and (b) what details those statistics will include.
Answered by George Eustice
As set out during Defra’s Post Implementation Review of the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010, the Government expects the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) to begin publishing from early next year annual aggregate injury and euthanasia statistics from GBGB tracks, and annual summary statistics for the number of GBGB registered greyhounds that leave the sport. The figures will cover the preceding calendar year and, for dogs that leave the sport each year, the details will include by what method. The GBGB will begin publishing both sets of figures by the end of March 2018. Access to anonymized track injury and euthanasia data will be considered by GBGB’s Welfare Standing Committee and Defra for bona fide research purposes.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) by what date he expects the Greyhound Board of Great Britain to begin publishing aggregate injury and euthanasia figures and (b) what period that data will cover.
Answered by George Eustice
As set out during Defra’s Post Implementation Review of the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010, the Government expects the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) to begin publishing from early next year annual aggregate injury and euthanasia statistics from GBGB tracks, and annual summary statistics for the number of GBGB registered greyhounds that leave the sport. The figures will cover the preceding calendar year and, for dogs that leave the sport each year, the details will include by what method. The GBGB will begin publishing both sets of figures by the end of March 2018. Access to anonymized track injury and euthanasia data will be considered by GBGB’s Welfare Standing Committee and Defra for bona fide research purposes.
Asked by: Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on a non-regulatory agreement with independent greyhound racing tracks to allow anonymised, aggregate injury and euthanasia statistics from those tracks to be published.
Answered by George Eustice
Prior to seeking any agreements with independent greyhound racing tracks, Defra has undertaken research and is currently assisting with further research sponsored by the Dogs Trust and the RSPCA into the profile and practices of independent greyhound tracks and the trainers that use them. There are currently three independent tracks operating in England.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy of the Belgian court ruling that a nursing home did not have the right to refuse euthanasia on the grounds of conscientious objection.
Answered by Oliver Heald
In England and Wales, euthanasia constitutes murder at common law (unless a partial defence applies to reduce the offence to manslaughter); and under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961 it is an offence to do an act capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person, with the intention so to encourage or assist. Because euthanasia is illegal, the issue of a right to refuse euthanasia does not arise.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, in how many cases of assisted suicide the Crown Prosecution Service has received files in each of the last six years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) records show that, between 1st April 2009 and 10 September 2015, there have been 114 cases, recorded as assisted suicide or euthanasia, referred by the Police. 24 of these cases were later withdrawn by the police.
The CPS central record cannot be filtered to identify how many referrals were received in each year. This information could only be obtained by manually examining CPS case files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average sentence for the offence of assisted suicide is for each year since 2009.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The number of offenders sentenced at all courts, by type of sentence and custodial sentence length band, for the offence of encouraging or assisting suicide or attempted suicide, in England and Wales, for the period 2009 to 2014, is available at the following link:
Select the offence “76 Aiding Suicide” to present information on offenders sentenced at all courts for this offence.
The Ministry of Justice does not publish the average custodial sentence length in circumstances where the number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody is too small to give a meaningful average – specifically when there are fewer than five offenders.