Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)

My Lords, this has, I can say without qualification, proven to be one of the most contentious Bills that has come before your Lordships’ House in this Session and perhaps, indeed, in any Session. One of the reasons why it has been so contentious is that it is so important. No one can deny that the Bill, if passed, would result in a profound change in the relationship between the individual and the state. It is therefore, obviously, a very important Bill. The fact that it is such an important Bill has meant that noble Lords across the House, whether for or against the principle of assisted dying, have taken the scrutiny of the Bill very seriously, as they rightly should. I suggest that there is both a general and a specific reason for that. The general reason is obvious— it is part of our unique constitutional role to scrutinise legislation in detail. That is why we are here. It is why our procedures are both substantively and essentially different from those of the House of Commons; I will not get into whether they are better or worse, but they are certainly different. The specific reason is that many MPs voted for the Bill not only in the knowledge but also on the express basis that it would be properly scrutinised here. Indeed, it was noted by several noble Lords at Second Reading, including in my own speech, that some Members of the House of Commons voted in favour of the legislation because they supported the underlying principle of the Bill trusting that this House would undertake the heavy task of detailed scrutiny in due course. Detailed scrutiny is separate from the question of the principle underlying the Bill. You can be for or against the principle of assisted dying and you can be for or against the Bill, but they are not the same thing. I know that there are some noble Lords who are and will always be against assisted dying on principle. Some of them have made that clear in their speeches. They would therefore be against any legislation that legalised assisted dying. But there will be others, and perhaps many, who are not against the principle of the Bill but are none the less anxious to ensure that we pass a Bill that is safe, contains proper protections and, importantly, is workable in practice. Whether one is for or against this Bill, it is regrettable that your Lordships’ House has not been able to reach a conclusion on it one way or the other. I feel uncomfortable that the Bill has run into the sand rather than being either sent back to the House of Commons in an amended form or voted down. I would have preferred either of those options to where we have ended up, where the Bill will simply be lost when the Session ends. The primary reason for the large number of amendments, many will say, is the large number of questions that the Bill, as drafted, left open. Many amendments raised complex issues, as those of us who have been at all the Committee days will know. It is understandable that there was a large number of amendments; some were designed to effect change and some were probing amendments designed to introduce greater clarity. However, regardless of how many amendments there have been, whether or not to legalise assisted dying is clearly a question that the public would like Parliament to answer.