Sir Jeremy Wright

In view of the number of hon. Members who wish to speak in the debate, I will restrict my remarks to amendments 47, 48 and 49, which stand in my name and the names of others. The amendments focus on the stage in the process that involves the multidisciplinary panel established by clause 14, and their purpose is to make that system work better. A panel is intended to be an additional safeguard. The hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) has made that very clear, and such panels are the successor to the involvement of a High Court judge assessing the merits of each case. The role of the panel is to determine whether it is satisfied of the matters set out in clause 15(2). Some of those matters are procedural—for example, whether the person seeking the certificate is aged over 18 or is resident in the UK, or whether declarations and assessments that should be made have been made. Others are matters of judgment, including professional judgment, such as whether an illness is terminal or whether the person applying for a certificate of eligibility has the mental capacity to do so. The remaining category of matters to be considered are matters of broader judgment, and I suspect those are likely to be where the panel focuses most of its attention, particularly the final two listed in clause 15(2): first, whether “the person has a clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life” and, secondly, that there is no coercion or pressure from anyone else. On those matters, the panel will hear from the relevant doctors, who will have had to make a judgment on those things, but I do not think that the intent of the Bill is or should be that the panel simply confirms that the doctor has reached a judgment and then adopts that judgment. The panel should, of course, reach its own judgment. It is right that the panel will also hear from the person wishing to die and will make its assessment of them. Particularly on the last matter—the absence of coercion or pressure—it may well be that highly relevant evidence will come from others. It may come from family, friends or others who know the person well, and we are familiar with a least one scenario where a new partner isolated the person in question before they suddenly and unexpectedly changed their view on their own assisted death. The problem is that under the Bill as it stands it is very difficult, and perhaps impossible, for those who know the person seeking a certificate well to know that those proceedings are under way or in prospect. They may not know, and nobody has to tell them, that the person has made the relevant declarations, or even that they have an intention to die, or indeed that there is any reason to submit any evidence they may have. I am not saying that every case in which someone has not told their family and friends of their decision to seek an assisted death will be concerning, but I think it is fair to say that a disproportionate number of the concerning cases will be in that category. In those cases, the panel may be making a judgment in the absence of relevant—perhaps crucial—evidence and they simply cannot do their job properly if that is so.