The Terminally Ill Adults – (End of Life) Bill, better known as either the Assisted Dying or Assisted Suicide Bill. It proposes to legalise assisted suicide for adult residents of England & Wales with a terminal illness which is likely to cause death within six months. Approval; is required by two doctors (who need not be Consultants or specialists) and a High Court judge. This process could be completed in 21 days (or nine days where death is anticipated within a month).

The Bill runs to 38 pages and was published on 11 November, allowing just 18 days for consideration before second reading. It passed its second reading at Westminster on November 29 2024.

The call for evidence on the bill approved in principle in November was actually not issued until after the Christmas recess on January 6 2025.

On January 21 2025, the Committee selected by Kim Leadbeter MP, the sponsor of the Bill, began to sit to hear evidence and will hear from some witnesses in the next few days. The Committee’s task is to scrutinise the Bill’s make-up, cause by clause.

This is the context of the call for evidence rather than one on the overarching principles of the Bill No-one expects you to be an expert on this bill or in the surrounding policy areas; with no set questions, it is suggested that people focus on a select number of key areas.

Leadbeter had proposed her suggested witnesses the committee would hear from over the coming weeks 10 days earlier – and then at 10am on the morning of the committee members were told those proposals had been altered. Not only are the lists balanced towards supporters of the Bill –but even more significantly contain no representatives of Disabled People’s Organisations.

Further she proposed that most of the committee meeting be held in private. Amendments to rebalance the list of people giving evidence – and most notably to add Ellen Clifford, co-ordinator of the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Monitoring Coalition, were defeated.

Please consider making a submission in the coming days, especially where you are able to speak from particular experience: as a doctor or nurse, as a lawyer, as a social worker, as a pharmacist, as a carer or loved one, as a disabled person, or simply as someone who has an opinion on the bill

Your submission could most usefully:

• highlight or discuss views on or concerns with the existing provisions of the Bill;
• suggest amendments to the Bill, with supporting explanation; and
• (when amendments are published) support or oppose amendments tabled to the Bill by Members of Parliament, with supporting explanation.

The submission should include a brief introduction about you or your organisation and be in the form of a word document with numbered paragraphs but no page numbers. A summary should be provided. Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered. As a guideline, submissions should not exceed 2,000 words.

Include in the covering email the name, address, telephone number and email address of the person responsible for the submission. The submission should be dated and emailed to tiabill@parliament.uk. There are further rules and guidelines you should read here, but we have spelt out the most essential ones.

The full timetable for the bill is a little unclear but it seems that at you can submit evidence up to January 30 – and then there will be a further opportunity when amendments are actually debated.

To read the minutes of the Select Committee on 21 January – see here

To read the bill as discussed at second reading: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0012/240012.pdf

To read the Parliamentary briefing issued before the second reading go to https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10123/