Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment (b) to New Clause 14

On 13 June 2025, the House of Commons voted on amendment (b) to New Clause 14 of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The amendment would have written the permitted exceptions to the Bill's advertising ban directly into the legislation, rather than leaving that detail entirely to a future Secretary of State to determine through secondary legislation. It was defeated by 254 votes to 233. The vote concerns how tightly Parliament constrains ministerial discretion over one of the Bill's safeguards. New Clause 14, tabled by Kim Leadbeater, the Bill's sponsor, already bans advertising of voluntary assisted dying services and requires the Secretary of State to make regulations on this. The defeated amendment would have gone further by specifying in the Bill itself which exceptions to that ban are permissible, meaning a future minister could not draw the exceptions so broadly as to undermine the ban. Supporters argued this was necessary to prevent a future Secretary of State, sympathetic to a commercial market in assisted dying, from effectively hollowing out the restriction. The vote did not divide cleanly along party lines, reflecting the Bill's status as a matter of conscience on which party whips are not applied. Labour MPs split 109 in favour of the amendment and 165 against, while Labour and Co-operative MPs divided 17 each way. Conservatives broke 68 to 12 in favour of the amendment. Liberal Democrats backed the existing New Clause 14 as drafted, voting 48 to 14 against the amendment. The Greens, with four MPs voting, all voted no. The Democratic Unionist Party's five MPs all voted aye. This vote on advertising safeguards took place during a day of multiple divisions on the Bill at Report Stage, a point in Parliament's legislative process where the full House debates and votes on proposed changes before a Bill moves toward its final reading.