Lord Harper (Con)

I do. The reason why I partly agree with my noble friend Lord Jackson is that I had a look at what the Court of Protection does in terms of publicity—the bit that the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, objected to. It publishes hearings in advance—not 28 days—but it does not publish the full name of the individual. It publishes initials and what the case is about: the broad category of the decision. That strikes me as quite a good balance, which provides transparency but maybe avoids people coming to “watch a spectacle”, to quote the concern of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter. However, there is some necessity for it to be in public. The reason for that is also set out in the Bill, which says the panels “must hear from, and may question, the co-ordinating doctor … must (subject to subsection (6)) hear from … the person to whom the referral relates”. At this point, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Berger. That should absolutely be a must; there should not be an exception. If it is the case, as I understand from the appearance of the noble Lord with me on a media programme, that the exception is designed for cases where the person’s medical situation is very severe, they should not necessarily have to come to the panel, but at least one member of the panel should absolutely still have to go and talk to them. It really should not be okay for the panel to authorise somebody to have an assisted suicide without ever having spoken to the person concerned.