The government must be “actively involved” in discussions about what to do if assisted dying is legalised in at least one jurisdiction of the UK or its crown dependencies, MPs have said.
A report on assisted dying by the health and social care committee concluded there was a “pressing need” to better understand mental health provision and guidance for the terminally ill.
MPs called on the government to create a national strategy of support for those with a terminal illness but stopped short of recommending a vote in parliament on assisted dying.
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The report recognised that the issue was being considered in Jersey and the Isle of Man, self-governing possessions of the British crown that are known as crown dependencies. In Scotland, meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur is expected to introduce an assisted dying bill to Holyrood this year.
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The government “must consider how to respond” to another British jurisdiction or crown dependency legalising assisted dying, the report said, calling the prospect “increasingly likely”. It added that ministers should be “actively involved in discussions” on how to approach the divergence in legislation that this would bring.
Campaigners said the committee report made an assisted dying law in Britain a matter of “when, not if”.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of the charity Dignity in Dying, said: “This report shifts the prospect of an assisted dying law for the UK from a hypothetical to a reality. It acknowledges that law change is coming down the track in the British Isles and rightly calls on the government to engage in this debate.”
The issue has been in the spotlight in recent months, with Dame Esther Rantzen revealing she has joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland. The Childline founder and broadcaster, who has stage-four cancer, has called for a free vote for MPs in parliament.
Rantzen, 83, said: “I had hoped that the committee would say it was time for another debate and a free vote. And they don’t say that. For people like me, who haven’t got all the time in the world, it is very disappointing.”
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The committee’s report said: “Although select committees usually make recommendations to government, in respect of [assisted dying] the government has made it clear that it will not take any steps towards legalising [it] but instead that this would be parliament’s role, should members wish to do so.”
The committee aimed to “gather the most up-to-date information and views on the topic to inform parliament and the wider public”, it said. The last vote on the issue in the Commons took place in 2015.
Since launching its inquiry in December 2022, the committee received more than 68,000 responses from members of the public.
Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. The report said that 15 per cent of all patients taking their lives at Dignitas between 1998 and 2022 were British.
No 10 has indicated that it would be up to parliament whether or not to again debate legalising assisted dying. Rishi Sunak has said it would be a free vote in parliament and that if the decision was taken to change the law, the government would facilitate it. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, who backed a change in the law in 2015, went further in December when he said that a private members’ bill and a free vote “seems appropriate”.
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The report also concluded that while the UK had long been a world leader in palliative and end-of-life care, access and provision was now “patchy”. It said: “The government must ensure universal coverage of palliative and end-of-life services, including hospice care at home.”
It called for the government to commit to an uplift of funding to guarantee support for hospices that need financial help. It described a “pressing need” for better mental health support for terminally ill people and said the government should commission research on the subject then report to parliament.
MPs said there should be a “national strategy for death literacy and support following a terminal diagnosis” to help professionals better support a dying person and their loved ones.
Steve Brine, the health and social care committee chairman, said: “The inquiry on assisted dying and assisted suicide raised the most complex issues that we, as a committee, have faced, with strong feelings and opinions in the evidence we heard.
“We intend the information and testimony we present in our report today to have a lasting legacy and, as we set out in the initial terms of reference, be a significant and useful resource for future debates on the issue. That could still be during this parliament, of course, or after the next general election.”
