Speeches by Shah.

“Twenty six people lost their lives in the Pahalgam terrorist attack, and now 26 people lost their lives in yesterday’s attack. The truth remains that no evidence has been presented to anybody—any national or international partners—to say that Pakistan was, indeed, responsible for the attack on Pahalgam. I thank the Min…”

“May I place on record my thanks to the Minister for all the work that he and the Secretary of State are doing on the MOU, which is very welcome? On the question asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I appreciate that we …”

“May I first send my condolences, thoughts and prayers to all the victims of this heinous terrorist attack in occupied Kashmir? There is a large Kashmiri diaspora in my constituency, and many of my constituents have reached out to me expressing deep concerns. A number of them have mentioned the Indus waters treaty. Paki…”

“Under the Bill as presented on Second Reading, the Secretary of State would have to report to Parliament on how the assisted dying system was functioning, but they would do so only after the system had been in operation for five years. Under amendment 452, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central, the Secre…”

“I was talking about amendments 450 and 451 and explaining why we should take an approach that involves understanding who the people who access assisted dying are, where they live and to which groups they belong. We have heard frequently from some hon. Members that assisted dying in other countries is disproportionately…”

“Amendments 450 and 451 were tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central. Let me first set out broadly what the amendments would do. They would mean that the reports of the chief medical officers for England and Wales had to include qualitative as well as quantitative data on assisted deaths. Subsection (2) of …”

“Does the hon. Lady agree that banning advertising also mitigates the issue of advertising to young people? She mentioned young people and suicide from a social media perspective. Young people, or anybody else who has an eating disorder, may see that as an option to enable them to qualify for assisted dying. That is bec…”

“I beg to move amendment 450, in clause 34, page 20, line 33, at end insert— “(1A) The relevant Chief Medical Officer must produce an annual equality impact assessment of access to both palliative care and assisted dying on the basis of— (a) protected characteristics as set out in the section 4 of the Equality Act 2010,…”

“I beg to move amendment 452, in clause 35, page 21, line 30, leave out from “must” to end of line 31 and insert “every 12 months after the passing of this Act—” This amendment will replace the review conducting after five years of the passing of the Act with an annual review starting 12 months after the passing of the …”

“May I thank the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough for sharing something so deeply personal? I am sure I speak on behalf of the whole Committee in wishing his mum well and hoping that she never has that diagnosis. I rise to speak to amendments 489 and 488. Amendment 489, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for…”

“As far as I have seen, no regulatory system has been proposed in regard to the Bill. I am happy to be corrected. Yes, in other instances we have regulators, but in this instance no regulator is specified. That is why I will come back to my argument about the amendment, but I value my hon. Friend’s intervention. This is…”

“That is the exact point I was about to raise. Is another amendment needed to ensure that providers of this service are not given more money if a patient goes through the process than if the process is stopped?”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her explanation, which was very good. I do not have time to go away and think more about it from a legal perspective, because I have only just heard her arguments, but at the moment I absolutely agree. As for my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft, I thank her for her attempt to explain. She…”

“I will re-read it. It is, “including where the person is in an intimate or family relationship with that other person”. The “family relationship”, I think, means that it is extended to siblings. That was my interpretation. Last week, or the week before, we spoke extensively about suicide, and women in particular. The n…”

“While I appreciate that it is not necessarily a duty as defined in law, does the Minister not agree that, given the way our Government operates, we need that data to inform us, in order to improve services elsewhere? We could apply that to this Bill as well.”

“The former chair of my local trust, Bradford teaching hospitals NHS foundation trust, Dr Max Mclean, has today secured whistleblowing protection for himself in a landmark victory. Last week marked a year since a non-exec director at the trust was suspended, and a third non-exec director has put in an ET1 form to the em…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her detailed explanation. She makes sense—I would not want to restrict that either. Perhaps she is entirely correct—no doubt she has researched it well—but clause 26 mentions coercion and pressure. It says all of that on the face of the Bill. My hon. Friend wants to leave it in that context— …”

“I rise to speak to amendment (b) to amendment 518, and amendment (b) to amendment 520. Although I appreciate that my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge is not pressing her amendments to a vote, it is important to get a few things on the record. I am speaking to these amendments to her amendments beca…”

“I am surprised by what the Minister says on the cost of the Bill. My understanding from our debates on cost is that, if the Bill is passed, its cost will be footed. Why is there a cost implication to this amendment and not to other provisions?”

“From a public health perspective, we have been having a huge debate for weeks and weeks about whether or not this is a health intervention and whether it should be provided in the NHS or elsewhere. When I was a public health commissioner, we collected socioeconomic data to learn about not just protected characteristics…”