Speeches by Paul.

“I thank the Minister for those helpful clarifications. Was any consideration given to also exempting encouragement as an offence under the Suicide Act? I am interested in why it was not exempted in the same way as assistance, particularly given that if it did fall within coercion and pressure—based on what the Minister…”

“I appreciate that, Mr Dowd, which is why I was elaborating—I wanted to make sure that everyone understood the nature of the question without having seen the letter. In order to summarise, following your instruction, I refer to the letter.”

“I will be fairly brief. I welcome amendment 508, which would ensure that conviction for the offence leads to a necessarily serious result. However, it is not just the strength of the sentence that we need to think about; there is also a question about how difficult it can be to detect and demonstrate coercion in the fi…”

“Does the hon. Lady have any concerns about what this position would mean for the end of life workforce? I know we are here to make law, but we cannot ignore the practical consequences for end of life care. If we do not have this carve-out, we could lose a lot of wonderful and great people who work in end of life care a…”

“I am absolutely reassured by the hon. Lady’s amendment, and I welcome it, but it is worth drawing attention to the fact that the sentence is important but identifying coercion and pressure can be difficult too. In written evidence, a social worker called Rose has cast doubt on the workability of the Bill. She was writi…”

“Thank you, Mr Dowd. In that case, I will stop there. I was just making the point that this is important. Amendment 509 states: “Proceedings for an offence under this section may be instituted only by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.” I would find it useful to have more clarity around how the …”

“The hon. Member is giving a powerful speech. My amendment is only to ensure that if the employee is working in an NHS clinic, they comply with the policy of that clinic. It would not restrict their doing other things in their own time. The wording of the amendment is clear, as I discussed with the hon. Member for Spen …”

“The conversation has moved on a little, but I was just going to make the point that the amendments that I tabled focus very much on the rights of the employer with respect to what they expect from their staff. I wonder whether it would be helpful to explore that a bit more.”

“We are saying that when an employee is employed by the hospice or the clinic, they are employed to deliver services as directed by the employer. I think the answer is that if an employer is really clear that they do not want to offer a service, an employee should not have a right to then offer the service that the empl…”

“We are just giving clarity; we are making it clear that it is reasonable and legal for an organisation to have a policy to not provide assisted dying and therefore to require its employees to respect that. All we are doing is protecting that employer from cases of discrimination, and so on, and it is really important t…”

“I completely agree. We are giving the same courtesy and rights at organisation level as we do to individuals. I know that the Committee is very supportive of that position for individuals, so I question why it would not be the same for organisations.”

“Yes, I believe that they should be able to discriminate in that way, and I believe their public funds for palliative care should remain consistent and unchanged in spite of whatever decision they make on that front.”

“I am slightly confused about the collective view. That will be done in the same way that any policy is come to. When a company is making a decision about their policies, vision and values, that normally involves directors around a table deciding what that will be. I do not really see any difference in how the decision …”

“Before I get into my speech, I thank the hon. Lady for her useful questions, as it is important to explore these issues. I will talk in more detail about new clause 23, but I would happily expand its provision, if that would make her happy. I wish to speak to amendment 481 and new clause 23 in my name. I welcome clause…”

“It is really helpful to have these questions. I would, of course, defer to the Ministers, as they will be best placed to answer that. However, I suspect the characteristic would be belief. We are trying to ensure that if a hospice has a policy of not providing assisted dying, it is not in a situation where it has emplo…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for raising that question. No, that would not be the case, because the amendment specifically says “with that employer”, so it links only to employer A. I think the wording is very clear that the situation that the hon. Lady is concerned about should not arise.”

“I will be very brief. I rise to ask a few questions about clause 21 as a whole. Following our debates on various amendments, I am aware that family and those close to the patient could not be involved in the process, although potentially for understandable reasons. I appreciate that we are not here to deal with the who…”

“My hon. Friend the Member for East Wiltshire eloquently covered most of the things I would have said. We have probably not spoken enough to date about the impact on pharmacists, but we are getting to the point in the Bill where it is really important that we take on board the written evidence and feedback that we are h…”

“I would like to think that that would naturally happen, and we have had lots of conversations where we have said, “In reality, of course this conversation would happen.” But I always like to be belt and braces, and I would like to have these things covered in the Bill. If Committee members are confident that these thin…”

“I rise to speak in support of amendment 408, in the name of the hon. Member for Broxtowe. I also support amendments 499 and 210, in the name of the hon. Member for Spen Valley, and amendment 22, in the name of the hon. Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato). Clause 19 states that “the coordinating doctor may authorise, in w…”