Liz Saville Roberts to support assisted dying bill in Commons vote

Member of Parliament for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Liz Saville Roberts has confirmed that she was minded to support the Bill at Second Reading provided there is a guarantee of sufficient scrutiny if the Bill passes to Committee stage.

‘Consquences’

She said: “The starting point for many of us today is how to resolve the dilemma of ‘what I want for myself’ with the fear of enabling potentially terrible consequences for others.

“There is a rational fear of how institutional pressures, lack of resources and – appallingly – culture within the NHS will ramp up the convenience of death as an affordable option.’

“This is not a new fear: Baroness Neuberger’s review into the Liverpool Care Pathway said, ‘In order that everyone dying in the acute sector can do so with dignity, the present situation has to change. That was in 2013. We know in the aftermath of covid how little has changed.

“Death as an institutional convenience has never been and never will be right. It is our duty to demand good palliative care. But this is not a licence to side-step today’s moral question.”

‘Long overdue’

The result of the vote is expected this afternoon.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who has put forward the Bill, said debate in the Commons on the issue is “long overdue” and, while not an easy subject, it is the job of parliamentarians to “address the issues that matter to people”.

Opponents of the Bill warned of the risks of providing a “suicide service”, and raised concerns around coercion and who might be caught up within the eligibility criteria.

If the Bill passes on Friday, it will go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.

It’s thought it will likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place.

A debate in the Senedd earlier this month saw MSs reject the idea of assisted dying becoming law.

Scrutiny 

Mrs Saville Roberts said: “The people of England and Wales now expect us as legislators to provide an answer in principle. It is our job to provide that answer not only in principle but also in process.

“With this in mind, I will support this bill at second reading if there is a guarantee of sufficient scrutiny to stitch together a complete garment out of what is presently threads and patches that could be rent asunder in court.

“If bill committee scrutiny cannot make this bill robust, I will reconsider my support at future votes. Can this House ensure that there is both cross-party and small-party representation on the bill committee rather than conventional party proportionality?

“The implications for Wales – where health is of course devolved – cry out for proper consideration. This is equally true for both remote and deprived communities where ill and dying people already suffer disproportionately inadequate health services.

She added: “Assisted dying should never be seen as an alternative to addressing the failures within the NHS in supporting patients and their families during some of life’s hardest moments.

“Nor should the Government prioritise decriminalisation of assisted dying over efforts to improve the dismal state of social care.

“We must ensure that there is sufficient scrutiny of this legislation, which is set to make a fundamental change in the nature of the law related to the legal primacy of protecting the right to life.

“Good law is dependent on detail and clarity, especially in the definition of terms such as capacity, and the responsibility of individuals.

“This is the most far-reaching piece of home legislation for which this generation of MPs will be responsible: we have a duty to ensure that we do this to the best of our abilities.”