Speeches by Olney.

“Would it not be easier for workers in care homes and other institutions who have a conscientious objection to assisted dying to apply to work in a place where they know it is not going to happen, as opposed to needing to exercise their right to conscientiously object every time it comes up? Is that not a reason to supp…”

“Ms Jacobs, what progress do you think the Government can realistically expect to make in terms of halving VAWG in the next decade?”

“To interrupt very briefly, you think it is possible, but it is about making sure that people are really focused on the things that are effective and we are not quite there yet, if I could just summarise what you said.”

“In terms of your sense of satisfaction, as I said, does it trouble you how much rape and sexual assault has gone up in the last 10 years?”

“Good afternoon, panel. The prevalence of domestic abuse against women has fallen in the last decade, from 9.2% to 7.4%, but, over that same period, incidents of rape and sexual assault against women and girls has increased almost fourfold, from 34,000 to 123,000. Sir Matthew, I wonder if you could give me the Home Offi…”

“What was successful about the illegal drugs strategy was having a Home Office-led team with staff from other Departments seconded into it, which is a different approach to the approach that you have used with your violence against women and girls strategy. Why was it different when it came to approaching violence again…”

“Are you saying, then, that you had this clear 10-year strategy for reducing drug use and you have not had that for violence against women and girls, and that is why you have not been able to replicate this structure?”

“Are you saying that, under the last Government, you did not have this clear set of objectives that mirrored what you had with the drugs strategy, meaning that there was a reason for setting up the VAWG strategy in a different way?”

“You mean the covid situation?”

“To pick up on what the hon. Member for Spen Valley said, the multidisciplinary panel comes at the very end of the process. She has talked about the different stages, but they all occur in isolation. There is a doctor, then there is another doctor, and then there might be a psychiatric referral. We heard clearly in oral…”

“I take the point, but I still think it is necessary to have this additional safeguard to close a loophole that means that people could render themselves terminally ill within the space of a month and use the opportunity presented by the additional provision in the Bill for reducing the 14-day waiting period. This is a …”

“The point is that they may take the opportunity to use the further provision that exists for people whose death is expected within one month.”

“I will.”

“The point is that we want to preclude the possibility, at whatever stage it might happen, that somebody could deliberately render themselves terminally ill by the voluntary stoppage of eating—”

“I am just reflecting on the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire’s intervention. Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that the purpose either of the panel or the High Court judge is to establish beyond all doubt that if a person is assisted in their death, no crime is being committed, and that in order to establish …”

“My original question was more about whether it has the same legal force as a High Court direction.”

“I am trying to clarify this for my own benefit, because I am not familiar with some of these procedures. Is there a difference between a High Court judge leading an inquiry or sitting on a panel, using their legal experience to provide advice or recommendations or give an opinion, and having a judge sitting in the High…”

“I beg to move amendment 457, in clause 13, page 9, line 17, after “made,” insert “and have not voluntarily stopped eating and drinking”.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I have tabled the amendment to exclude the possibility that somebody could render themselves, if that is the appropriate language, terminally ill by the mechanism of voluntarily stopping eating and drinking. The Bill before us is based on the principle that …”

“I seek clarification. As drafted, in clause 12(1)(c), the High Court would give “a declaration that the requirements of this Act have been met”, but in new clause 21(6)(a), the panel is required to issue a certificate of eligibility, to which the Minister just referred. I seek the Minister’s guidance on whether it is t…”