Contribution
I completely agree with that analysis, but it does not mean that if you have mesothelioma you are not suffering from a progressive illness or disease. That is different from somebody who is injured and has an injury that cannot be cured and was plainly caused by, for example, a car accident. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Sandhurst, for making that point, because I was going to say that, when we are talking about, for example, an illness caused by smoking or a disease caused by industrial waste, that does not make it any the less an illness or disease. The Bill is not interested in how you got lung cancer or bowel cancer; it is interested only in whether you have an illness or disease.
The second point is of considerable importance—the question of the Fatal Accidents Act. I do not think that anybody in the Committee wants somebody who has, for example, mesothelioma to be deprived of any claim that they may have against somebody who has committed a tort in giving them mesothelioma. They should not lose that right as a result of taking an assisted death. My noble friend Lord Hendy made the important point that somebody who might want an assisted death should not be deterred from it because they worry that that might affect it. For me and for the Bill’s sponsor in the other place, the only question is: what is the best way to deal with that? One of the possible answers is to have a considered review that will report before the Act comes into force. There is a little difference between what I am saying now and what the noble Lord said. I have absolutely no desire to test this by a few court decisions early on. We have to resolve this before that happens.
That is why my Amendment 786A requires the Secretary of State to produce a report about the effects of the Fatal Accidents Act within “the first reporting period”—that means within 12 months of the Bill being passed—which is more than two years before it would come into effect. Plainly, the intention is that the report be given and then whatever necessary steps there are that have to be taken to deal with the position in tort can then be taken, if necessary, by primary legislation.
I think what the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, meant in her speech was, “That is not good enough. You need to deal with the Fatal Accidents Act now, in the Bill.” There was no real sense one way or the other. Obviously, I will consider what she and others have said. If an amendment were tabled on Report saying that this had to be dealt with then and there—by which I mean a provision that said words to the effect of, “You do not lose your rights under the Fatal Accidents Act because you have an assisted death if you otherwise had them immediately before the assisted death”—it would be for the House to decide in relation to it.
The reason why I am advancing a review approach rather than nailing it down in the way proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, is that it gives every single angle the opportunity to be looked at. But it would be for the House to decide which was the better way of dealing with it. There is no doubt that, one way or another, the point needs to be dealt with.
Three other points were raised. First, what about the statutory mesothelioma scheme, which makes provision for the payment of compensation? It is dealt with by regulations. We would need to look—actually I cannot look at them, but the Government would need to—at the regulations. I anticipate that there would be no real issue for the Government in making sure that an assisted death was not prejudicial to someone under that.
Secondly, on statutory compensation—I may have misunderstood the question but the noble Lord, Lord Harper, will help me with this if I have—statutory compensation for the military might have been what he had in mind, under the various statutory compensation schemes. Again, they are in the hands of the Government and we need to see what those statutory compensation schemes say.
The final point, made by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, was about insurance policies. As she will know, they depend entirely on the terms of the insurance policy and it is difficult to deal with the terms of an insurance policy in an Act of Parliament. However, I am grateful to everyone who contributed to this debate.