Member

The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, invited the House to pay regard to what she called “the Attorney-General’s guidelines” on prosecutions. In fact, the guidelines were introduced by the DPP Keir Starmer—whatever happened to him? He did so because the Appellate Committee of this House, in its final case before it was replaced by the Supreme Court, required him to do so. The case was brought by Debbie Purdy, and I was proud to be her advocate in the Appellate Committee. To the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, I say that this Bill, if it were enacted, would provide a far better means of regulation and protection for those at the end of their lives than guidelines involving the DPP exercising a discretion not to prosecute after the event. That is a wholly unsatisfactory way of dealing with this matter.