Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)

I thank noble Lords for their thoughtful comments, particularly those on the amendments proposing an assisted dying help service and a minimum timeline for the assisted dying process. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Birt and Lord Mackinlay, and the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, for their amendments in this group. I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, for his helpful comments on the detailed letter that has been sent to noble Lords. I hope that noble Lords can therefore accept that that is in train and that they will refer to the letter. Of course, there will be other opportunities to come back on particular details if required. The amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Birt, aim to set up a new statutory body entitled the assisted dying help service, which would be part of the National Health Service. From a workability perspective, these amendments would create many new concepts and relationships that would conflict with the current provisions of the Bill. I note that considerable further policy development and legal drafting would be required to create a workable system should noble Lords support these amendments. Amendments 287A and 287B tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, would create a new role for the General Medical Council—GMC—to set the requirements for training, qualifications and experience, and introduce new licensing, for assisted dying. Although the GMC has a function to set standards for doctors and recognise specialisms, it does not set requirements for training and qualifications for specific services, or license doctors to provide them. This would be a significant departure from the way that the GMC operates and would require it to identify a new process to identify the doctors on this register who are licensed to provide this service.