Speeches by Leadbeater.

“Sorry. Dr Hussain: I really liked what you said yesterday; we need gold standard training. The thought yesterday about what happens with capacity made me think straight away about cases in the last few months where we, as a palliative care team, thought that someone had capacity, and the other team did not. That happen…”

“Q On that point, do you think there could be better training around coercion?”

“Q Dr Hussain, I hear your concerns about the broader impact on society, and certainly in terms of ethnic minorities. Have you seen any evidence that that is an issue in other jurisdictions? The evidence we have heard is that people from ethnic minorities are underrepresented in assisted dying statistics, meaning that p…”

“Q Thank you, witnesses, for joining us this afternoon. The good news for us all, on the palliative care conversation, is that we have in the room the Minister responsible for palliative care, who has heard those arguments loud and clear. Indeed, Second Reading showed that there is a huge amount of good will in the Hous…”

“On a point of order, Mr Dowd. I am slightly concerned that we are having a conversation about the process, rather than about the actual Bill. I am not sure whether that is in scope of the work of the Committee.”

“Thank you.”

“Q You raise a really important point. There is a range of different views within the disabled community, and we heard some of them this morning. A professor of disability rights made the point that disabled people also do not want to be excluded from the Bill, because if you have a terminal illness and you are disabled…”

“Q Baroness Falkner, do you want to come in on the point about how we could make the Bill more robust in terms of those protections? Baroness Falkner: Can I just pick up the point about section 6 of the Equality Act 2010? That is clear, but it was not written with the intention of applying in these circumstances; it is …”

“It will be a question. The Bill is very clear, in clause 2(3), that disabled people are not within its scope, but I would be really interested to know if there is anything you think we could add to make that clearer—I put that to Fazilet, too—because I want to be really clear about that, and I want to provide any reass…”

“Q Thank you so much for giving evidence this afternoon. Perhaps I can provide a bit of reassurance, Baroness Falkner, on a couple of issues. The first thing I would say in terms of the Bill—”

“That is really helpful. Dr Mullock, do you want to add anything? Dr Mullock: I agree with most of the things that I am aware of that Professor Esmail just talked about. I would add that at the moment, people go sooner than they would wish to die because they have to go to Switzerland while they are still well enough to…”

“Q If I may, I have a question for Professor Esmail, but I will make an observation—I think I have a duty to do this, and to be the voice of some of the people we are talking about this afternoon: the terminally ill people who are dying. We talked a little bit about suicide earlier, but it is clear to me that the termin…”

“Q On the point about referral, what happens in the case of abortion? That is one of the closest parallels we can get. If we have a doctor who is not comfortable having that conversation, presumably they cannot just leave that person with nowhere to go. Dr Green: What would happen is that the doctor would provide the pa…”

“Q On the point about reporting, where patients take that right to refuse treatment, capacity must be assessed at that point if a patient has said, “Look, I don’t want any more treatment.” That is quite an important point to assess capacity. Are those cases logged and recorded? Mark Swindells: Yes. It would be important…”

“Q To that point, in those conversations where patients are making very serious decisions, it is not uncommon that you would seek additional advice from other professions, such as a psychiatrist or possibly a social worker and other professionals, if you felt there was a need to do so. Professor Whitty: The further you …”

“Q Thank you for coming to give evidence this morning, gentlemen. I would like to pick up on coercion and capacity, because they are two really important points in the Bill. I would like to know a little more about the work that doctors and nurses do to check for coercion and assess capacity when patients are making rea…”

“These amendments allow additional witnesses to be called to give oral evidence, including representatives from Disability Rights UK, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and an expert in Welsh devolution and constitutional matters. As the sessions today have shown, hearing fro…”

“I beg to move amendment (a), in the list of witnesses set out in the table in the sittings resolution agreed by the Committee on 21 January 2025, after Mencap (Thursday 30 January, until no later than 5.00 pm), leave out “Representative of Senedd Cymru” and insert— “Professor Emyr Lewis (Emeritus Professor, Department …”

“Q That is incredibly helpful—thank you. Dr Kaan, do you want to add anything to that, and maybe touch on the training that takes place around identifying these things and the conversations that take place? Dr Kaan: I echo exactly what Dr Spielvogel has said. As part of our medical training, we are trained to assess cap…”

“Q I will try to be brief. I thank the witnesses for joining us from wherever they are in the world—it is great to have you with us today. I will get straight to the point. There is understandably a significant amount of nervousness about the potential change that the Bill would create within England and Wales. Could yo…”