BuDS roundly condemns the unprecedented and extraordinary threat to use the Parliament Act to bypass the House of Lords and force the Assisted Dying/Suicide Bill through Parliament. Such important legislation must not be railroaded in this way. We call on Kim Leadbeater MP and Lord Falconer, the sponsors of this Bill, to abandon this outrageous and unworkable idea.
BuDS also condemns the underhand methods used to bring this Bill before Parliament and prevent a proper national debate about the difficult and sensitive issue of assisted dying/suicide.
We call on politicians of all parties to recognise this Bill has reached the end of its life, and to step back so that a careful and well-informed national conversation about assisted dying/suicide can take place in the future.
An Abuse of Parliament – and Disabled People
It is entirely inappropriate, and an abuse of democracy, to try to salvage the Bill using the Parliament Act. The Parliament Act is intended to allow the House of Commons, as the elected chamber, to override the House of Lords if they reject or “otherwise fail to pass” a Bill which has been passed in the Commons. It has only been used 7 times since 1911, all for controversial Government legislation. It has never been used for a Private Members Bill, as is now proposed.
It is important to realise that the House of Lords is not ‘failing to pass’ the Assisted Dying/Suicide Bill. It is carrying out its constitutional role of carefully examining and improving the legislation. It has been alleged that a handful of peers are ‘filibustering’ or deliberately talking the Bill out of time. This allegation is simply untrue. A great deal of the Lords’ time has been taken up in considering amendments put forward by the Bill’s own sponsors and supporters. This Bill, at 59 clauses and 8 schedules, is longer than many Government Bills, and it was always going to take a long time to give it proper scrutiny. The fact that this Bill deals with such a sensitive and controversial subject as medically assisted suicide on the NHS only underlines the need for the legislation to be workable.
The truth of the matter is that assisted dying/suicide is not a suitable subject for a Private Members Bill. Private Members Bills have limited time for discussion in Parliament, and almost always deal with straightforward, uncontroversial changes to the law which do not require huge scrutiny. A 59 clause, highly complex and highly controversial Bill of this sort was never going to pass through Parliament as a Private Members Bill.
How the Parliament Act Could Be Used
This is how the Parliament Act works:
- Imagine that House of Commons passes a Bill (the ‘first Bill’), but that first Bill is rejected or ‘fails to pass’ in the House of Lords.
- Imagine another Bill (the ‘second Bill’) which is either identical to the first Bill as it was passed by the Commons, or is very similar to the first Bill except for changes agreed by the Speaker. If the second Bill is too different to the first Bill, the Parliament Act cannot apply to it.
- Imagine that the second Bill is introduced into the Commons a year after the first Bill, and the Speaker of the House of Commons then certifies that the Parliament Act applies to it.
- Once the second Bill has been certified, the Commons can either vote it through all its stages without amendment, or reject the Bill altogether.
- If the Commons vote the second Bill through, it is then sent to the House of Lords. However, if the Lords vote down the second Bill, or try to make any changes that the Commons do not agree with, then the Commons can invoke the Parliament Act.
- If the Parliament Act is invoked, then the second Bill simply receives Royal Assent, and becomes law. The Lords are ignored, along with any changes they tried to make.
The Parliament Act is primarily designed for Government legislation, which is complete, fit for purpose, and ready to be put onto the statute book, but which the Lords reject. It is not designed for incomplete or inadequate Private Members Bills that still require major changes to be fit for purpose.
In the case of the Assisted Suicide Bill, it is quite clearly not complete or fit for purpose. If it was reintroduced under the Parliament Act, it would pass into law broadly in the form that has already been roundly condemned by the House of Lords and many objective observers, including BuDS. For this reason, the Parliament Act is not appropriate to salvage the Assisted Suicide Bill, and to try to use it for this purpose would be a further abuse of Parliament.
For completeness, if the Bill’s sponsors were determined to try to use the Parliament Act to get something onto the statute book, however inadequate, they could ask an MP who wins the ballot for Private Members Bills in the next session to introduce a Bill which was very similar to the existing, failed Assisted Suicide Bill. They would then have to ask the Speaker of the House to issue a certificate that the Parliament Act applied to that new Bill.
It is also possible for the Government itself to introduce a Bill which is very similar to the existing, failed Assisted Suicide Bill, and to ask the Speaker to certify that the Parliament Act applied to their new Bill. However, the Government’s Chief Whip (who manages Parliamentary Bills) has said that the Government will not do this.
An Abuse of Democracy – and Disabled People
We know that the Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, who is a strong supporter of assisted suicide, decided before the General Election not to put the legalisation of assisted suicide into his party’s manifesto, because he did not wish the topic to be discussed during the General Election campaign. He instead chose to secretly bring the issue before Parliament as a “hand-out” Private Members Bill, partly drafted by the Government but disguised as an individual member’s work. This deceitful tactic led directly to the current situation, where the Lords have insufficient time to scrutinise the Bill.
The real tragedy of this situation is that the very difficult and complex issues around assisted suicide have not been properly or sensitively explored. The knock-about theatre of Parliament is not the best forum for people and organisations to come together to explore such a difficult and far-reaching issue. The Prime Minister had the choice to begin a national conversation about assisted dying/suicide, but he chose instead to abuse disabled people, and Parliament itself, by using underhand methods. This approach must never be repeated.
A Chance For A National Conversation
Regardless of your personal views on assisted dying/suicide, it is wrong and unfair for a legal change of this importance to be handled in this deceitful and chaotic way. Whether or not doctors should be able to end the life of NHS patients is a critically important issue where many points of view need to be heard, and expert opinions taken into account. That careful and well-informed national conversation about assisted dying/suicide has not yet happened. Whatever your views on this issue, we urge you to contact your MP and ask them to take this opportunity to step back and think again. This underhand Bill has come to the end of its life, and rightly so. We need to be looking forward and taking this opportunity to think about assisted dying/suicide properly.
BuDS’ View
As a community of disabled people, BuDS has reached a view that assisted dying/suicide would create very significant new risks for disabled people, and that those risks outweigh any potential benefit which assisted dying might bring for a very small number of people. We therefore oppose the introduction of assisted dying/suicide in the UK. We do not think that changing the law, which protects people’s right to life, is a necessary or proportionate response to the fact that a small number of people die in pain or distress.
We will obviously keep this position under review, and look forward to listening to and representing disabled people’s views in the national conversation which is now needed.
More Information
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