Member

The test of whether legislation before the Scottish Parliament is within devolved competence or is not law is essentially thematic. One has to have regard to the practical purpose of the legislation—in other words, there is a purposive test: what is the law is about? There is a series of Supreme Court decisions on that very issue, some of which I personally have lost in the past. As a consequence, we have to look at the purpose of the legislation. The purpose here is to enable the medical professions to engage in assisting people to die and to enable the use of medical poisons to be employed for that purpose. That is the obvious effect of this legislation.