Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)

On the noble Baroness’s first question, Clause 17(5) says that: “Where the panel considers it appropriate for medical reasons, it may make provision for the use of pre-recorded audio or video material for the purposes of subsection (4).” Subsection (4) relates to all of the material that the panel is dealing with. Subsection (5) is saying that the panel can use pre-recorded audio material if it thinks it is appropriate. I think it should be given that direction—I cannot see any reason why the panel should be restricted in relation to that. Turning to the privacy point, paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 says that: “Panels are to determine referrals in public”— so the default is that it is in public, not private—but that “this is subject to sub-paragraph (2)”, which says that a panel can sit in private if that is what the person wants. The question from the noble Baroness was, basically, why should everything then be in private. It is because everything is about the patient. The whole thing is about the patient. If I want the circumstances of my illness and why I want an assisted death to be private, I should have that option. It is unrealistic to say that we can chop this up into the bits that are about the patient and the bits that are not.