In this episode, we return to the Commons Chamber for day two of the Report Stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – the Private Member’s Bill proposing to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales – and another set of amendments, new clauses and votes. For the first time the supporters of the Bill lost a vote, on a new clause banning medical practitioners from raising the option of an assisted death with under-18s.
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So, what does this mean for the Bill’s chances? With day three of Report Stage now scheduled for Friday, 20 June, Parliament Matters’ resident procedural expert Paul Evans joins Ruth and Mark to unpack what’s happened so far — and what might be coming next. Is parliamentary support beginning to waver?
They also look ahead to the Third Reading debate, and the quirky (and very real) parliamentary rituals that would follow if the Bill passes – involving a green ferret and some Norman French.
Plus, MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn complain after facing investigation for joining a pro-Palestinian demonstration. They claim the police said that MPs should be held to a higher legal standard than ordinary citizens – raising troubling constitutional questions. Could this be a case of using the law to intimidate parliamentarians? If so, what can and should be done?
Paul Evans CBE
Paul worked as a Clerk in the House of Commons for nearly forty years, retiring in 2019 as Clerk of Committees responsible for the House’s select committees. He was made a CBE in 2019 for services to Parliament. During his career in the House of Commons he held a number of posts including Clerk of the Journals and Principal Clerk of the Table Office. He is a member of the Hansard Society and is a former Chair of the Study of Parliament Group . He has published a number of works on Parliament including the Dods Handbook of House of Commons Procedure.
Hansard Society
Parliament
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Bill documents
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Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.
Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.
Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. And welcome to the latest in our series of special podcast, tracing events around the Terminally Ill Adults End Of Life Bill, the bill that would allow assisted dying in England and Wales.
Ruth Fox: And Mark where we're at, we've seen the debate on the bill at report stage finished today. It has come to a close in terms of the discussion of the new clauses and the amendments, but the votes haven't finished. They didn't get through them all today, so MPs will have to come back next Friday, [00:01:00] 20th of June, to continue the votes that are outstanding.
We don't exactly know how many there will be. We know that there's one that the Speaker has selected today that they didn't get to, one from an opponent to the bill Rebecca Paul. But the speaker has indicated that he will be selecting further amendments for a decision as well. So there'll be a chunk of new votes on Friday next week.
But of the votes that did take place today, an amendment from Meg Hillier succeeded. Not one that Kim Leadbeater was supporting.
Mark D'Arcy: This is so far the first defeat, if you like, for Kim Leadbeater. Her bill has so far managed to ward off all the sort of hostile amendments until the moment that Meg Hillier's new clause two was voted on, and this was the clause that would've prevented doctors and other medical personnel from raising the subject of a possibility of assisted dying with a terminally ill person, under the age of 18. So they wouldn't be able to suggest it, the person concerned would have to actually raise it [00:02:00] themselves as a result of this amendment. So this is a defeat. It was reasonably emphatic in the end, wasn't it?
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