Lord Sandhurst (Con)

My Lords, the law should be changed. The current law on aiding and abetting suicide does not address the issues the promoters of the Bill undoubtedly seek to address. The structure and detail of the Bill before the House are deeply flawed. It required restructuring and the debate we have had in the past six months. It is not a safe Bill, when you get down in the weeds. We have to remember that the original process was to be overseen and managed by the judges of the Family Division. Had that still been the case then it would have been obvious that many of the safeguards that had to be written into this Bill, in the absence of such judicial oversight and control, would not have needed to be put expressly in it. We rightly trust our judges on such delicate matters. They are used to dealing with whether to end life support, and so on. The Family Division judges were removed from the scene. That required a proper rethink. Instead, we got this Bill. It was not the product of a royal commission. There had been no Green Paper. It has not received pre-legislative scrutiny. There was no formal consultation process on a draft or outline proposals. That is why, I am afraid, it is not fit for the very important purpose and aims which it has. Length does not mean quality.