Speeches by Olney.

“I reiterate the concern I raised when speaking to my amendments this morning: as far as I can see, seeking the second opinion of a second independent doctor allows the person seeking assisted suicide to have a second bite at the cherry if their first independent doctor has not granted permission. I do not think anyone …”

“I am glad to have had that clarification; however, it is really important to reflect on the fact that Dr Sarah Cox said that it would be considerably preferable to have the input of a multidisciplinary team at the earliest possible stage. That is not what is being proposed with these new clauses.”

“I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Amendment made: 206, in clause 11, page 7, line 24, leave out subsection (3).—(Kim Leadbeater.) See the statement for Amendment 188. Clause 11, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I will speak to my amendments 458 to 460, which would tighten the process around seeking a determination from a second independent doctor if the first has refused to say that the criteria are met. The amendments relate to clause 10, which I will say more abo…”

“The hon. Member is exactly right. An assessment of whether somebody should qualify for assisted dying needs to be based on objective criteria. If those are not met, the only way that a second independent doctor should have a role is if either the circumstances have changed or, for whatever reason, the first doctor is u…”

“I will speak briefly about an important point that the hon. Member for Spen Valley made. I want to get it on the record that I disagreed with something that she said. We heard a lot in the evidence sessions about the desirability of a multidisciplinary approach or a multi-professional team, and I listened particularly …”

“I am grateful for amendment 6 and to my hon. Friend the Member for St Albans for tabling it. I put on record, however, that I do not think that the panel that we are discussing addresses my earlier concerns. I wanted to make that absolutely clear by highlighting the further evidence from the Association for Palliative …”

“I thank the hon. Member, but I think she is responding to a slightly different point from the one that I made. There was further written evidence from Dr Doré, the honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine, on 25 February. He wrote: “To clarify any misunderstanding, the current Bill does not align w…”

“The amendment would remove the phrase “or otherwise” in the clause. All I am proposing is for the wording to be consistent with amendment 205 to clause 10, which has just been agreed. It does not specify “or otherwise”, but simply uses the words, “the practitioner dies or through illness is unable or unwilling”. What m…”

“I beg to move amendment 461, in clause 11, page 7, line 15, leave out “or otherwise”.”

“I am not used to my amendments being accepted. The hon. Gentleman is, of course, absolutely right. Dr Matthew Doré, the palliative medicine consultant and honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine, said in written evidence: “Allowing patients to seek multiple opinions undermines procedural integrity…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Thank you.”

“Do you think it was perhaps a mixture of naivety and lack of experience? The British Library example that you used was very compelling, but you were not aware of the threats until something like that happened. Was that perhaps due to a lack of intelligence coming from the people monitoring these threats more broadly?”

“My understanding of the role of GovAssure is that when it came in in April 2023, it replaced a system in which Departments were self-assessing their cyber resilience. My understanding from the Report is that the assessments done by GovAssure showed that until then Departments had been overestimating their readiness. Fi…”

“Thank you. Mr Devine, the GovAssure process was only introduced in April 2023, which seems quite late given how much we have known about cyber risks in the last decade. Why has it taken such a long time to bring it in?”

“Two weeks ago, I was glad to read reports in The Times that the Government intend to introduce a youth mobility scheme between the UK and the EU. That would be good for our economy, while providing young British people with the opportunity to work and study abroad. That is what the British public want, with new polling…”

“The US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has this week announced the stepping back of US counter-cyber measures against Russia. This incredibly concerning decision by the Americans threatens not only their cyber-security, but our own. The Russian Government have been accused of orchestrating a widespread campaign of int…”

“I thank the hon. Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) for his work in securing this important debate, and Members from across the House for their contributions this afternoon. The Liberal Democrats support this motion, which aligns with our long-standing stance on political finance reform and protecting democracy fro…”

“Although this is not specified in any of the amendments—which are in the name of my good friend, my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) —they are very much informed by the work she has done over a number of years as the chair of the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group. This is a subject about whi…”