Dame Karen Bradley

I am sorry; I really must make progress. We could have thousands of people entering the system immediately. If the safeguards are not right on day one, vulnerable people will be exposed on day one. We also have the updated equality impact assessment, to which the hon. Member for Bradford West referred, and its conclusions should give every Member pause. It recognises that “disabled people may feel subtle pressure due to attitudinal barriers or a lack of alternative appropriate services and support…This could also include structural pressures such as neglect, poverty and difficult living conditions”. It also recognises that we may see “disproportionate numbers of ethnic minority people choosing to have an assisted death to avoid financial hardship or escape abuse.” I believe that the Bill is not finished, but we are effectively voting today for a completed and finished Bill. That worries me enormously. Much has been said previously in the debate—I will not repeat the point—but we are giving powers to a future Government to implement this Bill. We are not giving those powers to the Ministers sitting on the Front Bench today, and we are not necessarily giving them to those on the Opposition Front Bench; we are giving them to a future Government of any political persuasion. When I was a Government Minister, I remember always asking myself, “Would I be happy if another Government took this forward—if they had the power to do this?” I ask Members to apply a test that we too rarely apply when legislating: do not ask whether you trust the people who will administer these powers today; ask whether you would be content with the political party you trust least possessing them tomorrow. There is simply not enough detail in the Bill to constrain how many of these decisions would be made. The National Down Syndrome Policy Group put it best: this Bill hopes for the best rather than prepares for the worst.