Member

On our proceedings, it needs to be said that some members of the public will have assumed that the matter of assisted dying had been settled on the back of the widespread reporting of the vote on Second Reading. It was not always clear in all the coverage that the vote on Second Reading was essentially on the principle of assisted dying, and that the form the legislation might take could still change or potentially it may not even be passed at all. The size of the majority secured by those in favour has led some commentators to claim that it will definitely be passed in some form. That is certainly understandable, but we should not take that outcome for granted, not least because that would be a disservice to the very important work of the Committee over recent months and what may happen on Report, all of which could change Members’ decisions in both directions.