Contribution
My Lords, I have two amendments in this group, the first of which is Amendment 125. I am concerned because the Bill as it stands leaves the responsibility of appointing the commissioner to the Prime Minister alone, with no guarantee of the usual safeguards that are applied to public appointments. As a Cross-Bencher and someone who has been through the independent process— I owe my seat in the Chamber to that process— I believe it is vital.
In October 2025, the Cabinet Office released an updated Governance Code on Public Appointments. The first two requirements are for integrity and openness: Ministers must declare and resolve any interests and relationships, and the processes for making public appointments should be open and transparent. My amendment seeks to bring more transparency and openness, but would leave the final decision with the Prime Minister—once, of course, they have consulted with Welsh Ministers.
There are no such requirements in the Bill for this, just that the commissioner must hold, or have held, office as a judge of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal or the High Court. That is a reasonable assumption. However, there is no requirement for the commissioner to declare and resolve any interests and relationships or for the appointment process to be open and transparent. We have to declare virtually everything that we do, so it is not inappropriate that the commissioner should have to do so as well.
I strongly agree with the noble Lord, Lord Deben. That person has to command respect. However, the reason I am asking for this is also to safeguard the individual. We see in the amendments today that the Bill is weak on data and reporting provisions.
My noble friend Lady Finlay raised what has happened in New Zealand. Simon O’Connor, a former New Zealand MP, described some troubling incidents there around the two doctors. Dr Dana Wensley resigned due to her concerns regarding serious problems with the committee’s ability to oversee the implementation of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Dr Wensley is an ethicist. Dr Jane Greville, a palliative care specialist, was pushed out, it is thought, because she was raising too many concerns about the operation of the new law. Both Dr Greville and Dr Wensley went public and stated that the committee’s oversight of the law was so limited that wrongful deaths could go undetected. They cited being extremely concerned about how little information they received relating to patient death, leaving them feeling constrained to the point of irrelevance. They both said that the system was so broken that they would not have been able to identify if somebody had wrongly died.
What happens if normal standards are not followed? We can compare it to someone with significant shares in a drug company being able to decide what drugs the National Health Service could use. As others have said, the assisted dying commissioner will have tremendous oversight. They can make appointments to the list of persons eligible to sit on the assisted dying review panels. They can make arrangements in relation to panels, determine applications for reconsideration and monitor the operation of the Act. This role should be defined by Parliament, not by their own ideas. I would like the noble and learned Lord to give assurance that this appointment process will be looked at to see how we can ensure that the Nolan principles for public appointments will be adhered to.
Looking at the possible scenarios, this individual could be called into a meeting with the Chief Medical Officer to discuss the future of palliative care. They will hold a great deal of power in their hands.
At the Lords Select Committee, Justice Minister Sarah Sackman confirmed that there would be no support to engage or challenge the commissioner. I am very interested in the noble and learned Lord’s view on whether legal aid would be possible to do this. In the case of exceptional funding in coroners’ cases, we might have to be in the position where a person is dead before they get any support to challenge the decision that was taken.