A committee of MPs is scrutinising the assisted dying bill line-by-line. Unusually, it is on camera, giving a rare public insight into how details of legislation are debated. It comes as MP Kim Leadbeater is accused of weakening the bill with a new amendment.
Tuesday 11 February 2025 11:29, UK
After two hours of speeches and debate, the committee of MPs scrutinising the Assisted Dying Bill have stopped for a break.
The committee approved an amendment to make clear that the bill only applies in England and Wales, and then debated how best to ensure that a person requesting an assisted death is fully mentally capable of doing so.
The session will resume at 2pm.
It’s Tuesday, which means it’s the weekly cabinet meeting.
Sir Keir Starmer’s top team has gathered in Downing Street to discuss what each department is up to, set priorities, and make decisions.
Here are some photos of the PM’s top team arriving this morning…
MPs backed a proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales in a historic vote last year.
But months of detailed scrutiny and further votes are now required before the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill can become law.
Currently under way is the scrutiny committee, made up of 23 MPs, including 14 opponents of the bill, who are reviewing the legislation line-by-line and suggesting amendments.
The committee has been holding public hearings and taking evidence from experts, which has led to amendments being proposed which will be voted on by all MPs later down the line.
So what exactly is in the bill, and what are the biggest proposed changes?
Sky News explains below…
As the Assisted Dying Bill committee’s most important stage so far gets under way, we are starting to see how delicate the politics of this issue is.
Those MPs in favour of changing the law carry a huge weight of responsibility to get the legislation right and reassure not just their colleagues in parliament, but the entire country, that it contains the strongest possible safeguards.
The MP behind the bill, Kim Leadbeater, having caused uncertainty overnight by suggesting sign off by a High Court judge may not be a necessary stage of the process, must today calm nerves.
Those who oppose the bill, conscious that they are in the minority on the committee and in the House, will be determined to make their concerns get attention.
This could all mean that the discourse, which has been respectful so far, may get more confrontational as the stakes get higher.
After the Assisted Dying Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons last year, it moved to the committee stage. This is where a group of MPs scrutinise the legislation line by line and propose amendments – before it goes back to the whole House.
So who are the MPs on the committee, and how did they vote at second reading?
MPs on the committee who voted FOR the bill:
MPs on the committee who voted AGAINST the bill:
There are also two ministers on the committee, representing the view of the government:
Although they both voted for the bill in their capacity as MPs, they have made clear that as they are there on behalf of the government, they will provide factual information and answer questions only.
Danny Kruger MP, a staunch opponent of the assisted dying bill, raised a point of order at the start of the committee meeting on the legislation.
While he acknowledged that normal process is being followed, he noted that MPs “heard through the media that a very substantial change to the bill is going to be introduced”.
That is in reference to the bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater MP, announcing she will propose an amendment to have a multidisciplinary panel approve requests for an assisted death, rather than a High Court judge, as originally proposed.
Kruger suggested seeking an adjournment to “consider the additional evidence”, given the “substantial changes” being proposed.
Leadbeater’s amendments “change the whole scope of the bill,” he added, to which committee chair Esther McVey acknowledges there are “significant points of concern”.
But it is for the committee to decide whether to adjourn, she added.
Other MPs raised similar concerns, and in response, Leadbeater told the committee: “There are a wide range of amendments being proposed, and that is the job for committees – to take evidence, look at those amendments, discuss them, debate them, and then vote accordingly.
“And that is the process we’re all here to undertake.”
The committee of MPs scrutinising the assisted dying bill has gathered to discuss the legislation – and are doing so in public.
The session is a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the legislative process that is not usually done on camera.
MPs will read through the bill line by line, and amendments will be proposed – including a controversial one to have a multi-disciplinary panel approve requests, rather than a High Court judge, as originally proposed.
Watch the session live above, or in the stream below – and we’ll bring you the key moments right here in the Politics Hub.
We’ve just been speaking with Tory shadow minister Matt Vickers, and we asked about the proposed change to the assisted dying bill that would see a multi-disciplinary panel approve requests, rather than a High Court judge, as originally proposed.
He told Sky News that “you need to make sure that vulnerable people are not coerced, are not put under pressure, often, you know, in very difficult circumstances where they may not be well, where they’ve got all sorts of challenges”.
He continued: “When this bill came forward, they told us that one of those safeguards was a High Court judge. And already we’ve seen some slippage on that.
“There’s a real cause for concern for anybody who was on the fence, who was unsure about how to vote in this legislation.”
The shadow minister added: “This was meant to be foolproof. It needs to be foolproof because it needs to protect vulnerable elderly people.”
We’ve just been speaking with education minister Baroness Jacqui Smith about the proposed change to the assisted dying bill that would see a multi-disciplinary panel approve requests, rather than a High Court judge, as originally proposed.
She told Sky’s Wilfred Frost that the bill is “a matter for parliament” rather than government, and so it is not for her to opine on the change.
More broadly, should the bill be passed, the government “will facilitate that being as effective as possible”.
Smith is a peer, and does not vote in the Commons, so she told Wilfred that she “will want to look really carefully” at the bill if MPs vote it through and send it to the House of Lords.
Even after half a century, she’s still adored and revered by Tories, grudgingly respected by present and former Labour prime ministers and yet despised and reviled on the left and in many working class communities.
It was 50 years ago this week that Margaret Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and began to change the course of political history, winning three general elections in the UK and becoming a major figure on the world stage.
She became leader aged 49, after defeating former prime minister Edward Heath in a shock result in the first ballot, on 4 February, by 130 votes to 119 and then beating William Whitelaw by 146 to 79 in the second ballot a week later.
In those days, Conservative MPs chose the leader and Mrs Thatcher’s biographer, Charles Moore, has revealed that when she told husband Denis she was standing, he muttered: “Heath will murder you.”
She had also declared in a TV interview in 1973, when she was Mr Heath’s education secretary and denounced as “Milk Snatcher” for scrapping free school milk: “I don’t think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.”
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