Speeches by Kruger.

“The media report that people in No. 10 are tearing their hair out in frustration at the DWP taking so long to come up with welfare reforms. We have already been waiting seven months, and now we are told it will be March before there is a Green Paper, and presumably there will be no actual legislation until the end of t…”

“The answer to my question is £1.8 billion. That is the cost of Labour’s economic inactivity and its failure to reform welfare since the election. The sum is the same as the saving from cutting the winter fuel payment plus the income from taxing family farms. In opposition, Labour opposed imposing conditions on people c…”

“Q Can I have one minute with Dr Furst and one minute with Mr Greenwich? Dr Furst, I have had a look at the reports of the South Australia Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board, and I can find no data on referrals for additional assessments of eligibility or decision-making capacity, or reasons why people were considere…”

“Q It is great to hear about the case for common law over the Human Rights Act. Yesterday we heard about parliamentary sovereignty. This is a tremendous process we are having here. Professor Hoyano said that the person in the street would not see the difference between a patient requesting to die by the withdrawal of tr…”

“Q This is a question for Claire Williams. It was interesting that you said you were not aware of what drugs might be used in assisted dying. We obviously do not yet know what will be proposed here if we pass this law. There are lots of different combinations of drugs used in other jurisdictions, and we do not know much…”

“Q Professor Preston, I wonder what you think about this idea of a panel instead of the High Court judge. A lot of Members who voted for the Bill on Second Reading did so partly on the basis that there would be that judicial stage. Although we can all recognise the value of having more expertise involved, the role of th…”

“Q This is a question for Mr Malone. May I say how greatly I sympathise with what you have been through? I am very sorry to be fighting against you in this matter. I really can imagine how that feels. Thank you for what you said. I just want to ask about your sister’s experience. On the eligibility question, is it your …”

“Q Following straight on from that, do you imagine it to be an NHS-funded service if it is outside core general practice? If so, what might the implications be for resourcing, assuming that it was funded out of general NHS resources? In the practical terms of the Bill, what do you think of the provision that the co-ordi…”

“Q Professor Hoyano, what do you think about the indemnity against civil liability in the Bill? Do you think it is appropriate to indemnify all doctors, even if they have made a woefully bad diagnosis, botched a prescription or, in some cases, actually caused some harm? Do you think it is appropriate that they be exclud…”

“On a point of order, Mrs Harris.”

“Q Okay. Thank you very much for that. Mr Greenwich, you said a couple of things. You said that voluntary assisted dying supports palliative care in terms of funding. I read that although New South Wales committed to spending an extra 743 million Australian dollars on palliative care, in fact the budget was cut by 249 m…”

“Q Okay, very quickly, from what we have heard from you today, it is clear that the interface of assisted suicide, palliative care and NHS care generally in social care and hospices is really problematic and complicated. If we are going to do this, should we not just take it out of healthcare altogether? Would you not f…”

“Q I want to give Professor Shakespeare the chance to respond to the point that we have heard. I am interested in whether you recognise that many disabled people—in fact, not just disabled people, but anybody who declines treatment that keeps them alive—would qualify as terminally ill under the terms of the Bill? What p…”

“Q It does, very helpfully. Can I come back to you quickly? You point out that to suffer is essentially a subjective experience, so it is very difficult for somebody from the outside to determine whether somebody else is suffering to a certain threshold. By that reasoning, it should simply be the case that people who fe…”

“Q I am very grateful for your evidence; it is really useful. I want to state, for the record and for information, that we have before us today three professionals from Australia, all of whom support the laws in that country, and that we heard yesterday from two American doctors, who were also supportive of assisted sui…”

“Are we asking one question each, Mr Dowd, or may I ask two if I am quick?”

“Q Professor House, in Oregon, which partly inspired this Bill, I understand that there is an expectation—in fact, a requirement—that there be a psychological assessment if the assessing doctor thinks that a mental health condition, depression or other issue might be present. Do you think that that would be appropriate?…”

“Yes, thank you. So we need it anyway: in all cases, there should be a psychological assessment as part of the process. Professor House: As part of the assessment, yes.”

“Q Mr Robinson, I want to come back to the question of coercion. We heard from advocates of assisted dying laws elsewhere that there is hardly any evidence of cases of coercion in this service overseas, and yet you are reporting—and we absolutely believe you, because we see evidence of it—that there is a chronic problem…”

“Q Dr Graham, on the points about article 14, I very much appreciate and welcome your belief in parliamentary sovereignty, and the suggestion that the courts should listen to Parliament—most of us agree with you on that—but it is a big hope. They do have the opportunity, and have demonstrated their power, to object to s…”