Overview

• Peers are expected to back Baroness Luciana Berger’s amendment to set up a select committee to gather evidence from ministers and expert witnesses before the bill’s detailed scrutiny.
• The committee’s remit is set to cover funding, the roles of coroners and clinicians, and psychiatric capacity, with potential witnesses including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary David Lammy.
• The bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, requiring approval by two doctors and an expert panel including a psychiatrist, a social worker and a senior legal figure.
• King’s College London researchers have called the draft “dangerously inadequate,” urging mandatory palliative care assessments, clear clinical guidance for complications and robust monitoring.
• Professional and procedural concerns persist, with the Royal College of Psychiatrists warning of workforce and safeguarding gaps and the Lords Delegated Powers Committee branding the measure a “skeleton bill”; if enacted, the government would have up to four years to establish the service.