Speeches by Paul.

“I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention, which I welcome.”

“I rise to speak in support of amendment 341 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham. It would provide that a registered medical practitioner who is unable or unwilling to have the preliminary discussion must provide information to the patient about where they can have that discussion, bu…”

“I rise to speak briefly to amendments 413 and 414, which are very thoughtful and well-considered amendments. I thank the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd for setting out powerfully and persuasively the importance of the subject. I support the amendments, but in reality we probably need to go further by specifyi…”

“Okay. I will just put it on the record that whether or not something is a medical treatment is vital. It is possible to give medical treatments without consent, so we need to have that debate.”

“I appreciate the opportunity to speak briefly, Mr Efford. Many other speakers have already made excellent points in support of the amendments, so I will not repeat them, but I would like to put on record one pertinent point. During these proceedings, there has been a tendency by some to speak as though assisted dying w…”

“I am going to change gear slightly. I want to take advantage of such knowledge of the witnesses and ask you about a specific issue that I have in my constituency in Redhill. There is an estate called Park 25 that has a biomass boiler heating system and it is used to support all the apartments on the estate, so a lot of…”

“It is Park 25. It is very famous for all the wrong reasons.”

“Thank you so much. That is really helpful. I will follow up and write to you once the study has been conducted, but thank you for that answer. I appreciate it.”

“Yes, absolutely, and that is clearly understood. The point I am making is that it is an opportunity to validate whether overall the subsidy approach that we are taking is at the right level, so we can potentially take some learnings from this contract. Clearly, you have to administer the contract as set out in the cont…”

“Thank you, Mr Pocklington, for that update. I have a quick question from the overview you gave. If the excess profits clawback is triggered, will that lead to a review of the overall approach to subsidies? That suggests that the subsidy is not set at the right level.”

“You mentioned various moral issues that you are not commenting on, but in reality the decision on this increases the number of people who would be considered to have capacity. I suggest that that might not actually be a neutral position to take; it has a broader impact.”

“Should the Government not be neutral on what framework for capacity the Committee might like to apply?”

“I thank the Minister for explaining that. Does he recognise that what is being said today is that operational reasons are driving the decision we make with respect to capacity? We are talking about a decision for someone to end their life. Does he not think that that would absolutely warrant us doing something that mig…”

“I rise to speak to my amendment 398. I recognise that much debate about capacity has already taken place, so I will do my best not to be too repetitive, but it is an important topic and I want to cover a few things. Fundamentally, I consider the bar for the capacity to make a decision to seek an assisted death to be fa…”

“The Minister has used the word “new” several times, and that is the crux of our argument: this is a new approach and a new process. Does the Minister agree that it warrants a different, more robust approach to looking at capacity?”

“I am so sorry, Mrs Harris.”

“I appreciate your giving way. The point that we are trying to make is that it is important to provide the information about palliative care. I understand the reservations of the hon. Member for Stroud about forcing someone to see a palliative specialist, but wording can be tweaked or changed to allow that choice. The k…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I know the hon. Member has a huge amount of experience on this matter given his career, so I thank him for that contribution. It must not be forgotten that it is the nature of such illnesses for there to be periods of unwellness, when people are at their lowest ebb, and it is our job to protect them from something that…”