In this ninth instalment of our special mini-podcast series, we continue to explore the latest developments in the progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, often referred to as the assisted dying bill. We are joined by Dr Marie Tidball MP to discuss the amendments she has secured for a Disability Advisory Board and an independent advocate for people with learning disabilities.
After more than 90 hours of debate and over 100 votes, the Public Bill Committee has concluded its work on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
In this week’s special episode, Ruth and Mark talk to committee member Dr Marie Tidball MP. She shares her insights into the amendments she proposed to ensure disabled people have proper support and protection in navigating the assisted dying process—and reflects on her experience working on the Bill Committee.
The Bill is now set to return to the House of Commons for Report Stage consideration in April. Already, new amendments are being tabled, touching on issues such as the rights of people with neurodegenerative conditions and whether clinicians should be permitted to raise assisted dying as an option with patients.
Ruth and Mark break down the key changes made during Committee Stage and offer a preview of the debates to come.
Dr Marie Tidball MP
Marie Tidball was elected in 2024 as the Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire. She is a member of the House of Commons Education Committee and has also served as a member of the Public Bill Committee of MPs appointed to scrutinise the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – the bill to legalise assisted dying – which she supported in principle at its Second Reading. She is also Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism. Before becoming an MP, she studied criminology and was awarded a doctorate on autistic adult defendants in the criminal justice system. As an MP with physical disabilities, she has spoken out about the everyday difficulties that she faces navigating the parliamentary estate.
Hansard Society
Parliament
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Bill documents
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00:00:00] Intro: You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hanard Society Production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org uk/PM.
[00:00:17] Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.
[00:00:24] Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. And welcome to the latest in our series of special podcasts, charting the progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, the bill that would enable assisted dying in England and Wales.
[00:00:36] And this week, Ruth, the bill reached an important milestone. The end of its marathon committee stage.
[00:00:41] Ruth Fox: It did half past midnight on, uh, well, early hours of Wednesday morning. The committee finally concluded its proceedings. So, uh, 29 sittings. I'm told 90 or so hours. I haven't calculated them myself, but that's what we're told.
[00:00:56] 110 divisions. The committee stage comprises 850 pages of Hansard text. So, uh, yes, it's been a marathon
[00:01:05] Mark D'Arcy: And one of the most significant players in the latter stages of the Committee has been Marie Tidball, a Labour MP and disability campaigner who pushed through significant changes aimed at helping to protect people with disabilities.
[00:01:17] Now, we've discussed on the pod before that most of the new MPs on the Committee have little experience of this kind of scrutiny work. But she's the exception to the rule as she told us when we met her just hours after that Committee had risen.
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If a crisis or major national event occurs during a period when Parliament is adjourned, there are often demands from MPs, the media and the public for Parliament to be ‘recalled’. But the House of Commons Standing Orders stipulate that only Government Ministers - in reality, the Prime Minister - can ask the Speaker to recall the House. In recent years the House of Lords has generally been recalled at the same time as the House of Commons.
In response to the Modernisation Committee's call for views on 17 October 2024, we submitted evidence outlining key areas we believe the Committee should prioritise. Our submission recommended a focus on: strengthening legislative scrutiny, with particular emphasis on reforming the delegated legislation system; enhancing financial scrutiny, especially in relation to the Budget and the Estimates; addressing strategic gaps in parliamentary scrutiny; making more effective use of parliamentary time; and reviewing the Standing Orders, language and rituals of the House of Commons.
This briefing explains what to watch for during the Second Reading debate of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29 November. It outlines the procedural and legislative issues that will come into play: the role of the Chair in managing the debate and how procedures such as the 'closure' and 'reasoned amendments' work. It looks ahead to the Committee and Report stage procedures that will apply if the Bill progresses beyond Second Reading. It also examines the government's responsibilities, such as providing a money resolution for the Bill and preparing an Impact Assessment, while addressing broader concerns about the adequacy of Private Members’ Bill procedures for scrutinising controversial issues.
The assisted dying bill (Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill) is now at the Committee stage, where a Public Bill Committee reviews the bill clause by clause. This briefing outlines the Committee’s role, how MPs propose changes to the bill and where these are published, how the Chair selects and groups amendments, and how these are debated and voted on.
