Speeches by Paul.

“Q My question is to Dr Mullock. You talked in your written evidence to this Committee—and you have just touched upon it—about the danger that someone could bring undue influence to bear on a person considering assisted dying, and that influence could be, in your words, “more subtle than outright coercion”. How do you t…”

“Q My question is for Toby Porter, and it is probably quite timely. What are the risks and impact for the hospice sector if assisted dying becomes legal? Can you talk broadly about the implications, touching on the impact on the workforce and patients? Toby Porter: In England and Wales, there are about 190 hospice chari…”

“Don’t worry. Thank you very much.”

“Q My question is to Chelsea Roff. First, thank you for your written evidence, which I found extremely helpful. It indicates that in Oregon, California and Colorado, patients with anorexia have qualified as having a terminal illness. There have been instances of patients suffering with anorexia being described as termin…”

“Q I have a quick follow-up. What you said about palliative staff generally being against assisted dying was very interesting. Briefly, what are the drivers or key reasons for that? Toby Porter: I am conscious that two palliative care doctors are sitting to my left, but I would say that it is quite constitutional. The W…”

“Q This is a question for Glyn Berry. A statement that you published in November 2024 says: “There is a risk that without a more sustainable model of funding for palliative care, many people will choose an assisted death, as the only way to escape from unbearable suffering.” Can you elaborate on why you say that? Glyn B…”

“Q Would it be fair to say that you would need to know fairly quickly whether or not it would be provided through the NHS for planning purposes? Professor Whitty: That is a key question, and to me that does seem something that Parliament may want to debate. That is not a question for us, but it is a point of principle o…”

“Q What is a reasonable timeframe, in your view? I appreciate that that is a bit like asking, “How long is a piece of string?” What would you ideally like to see? Professor Whitty: I think that there is a big difference between the Act coming into initial force—that is, “This is now where the law is”—and the service bei…”

“Q The Bill sets out that it should be brought into force within two years. If the intention is to provide assisted dying through the NHS, can the NHS be ready in time to deliver the service equitably and safely? What needs to be deprioritised in order for it do to so? Professor Whitty: As we have seen in covid, the NHS…”

“Q In terms of the data showing that palliative care has not improved as quickly in locations that offer assisted dying, can you offer us any further insight into why that may be? What should the Committee be thinking about, in relation to the Bill, to safeguard against that happening? I think we all agree that we do no…”

“Q My questions are to Alex Ruck Keene. Thank you for your written evidence, which I read with great interest. I have two questions for you. This follows on nicely from the discussion we have just had. Is there any risk that if the terminal illness definition were to remain in the Bill, it could be challenged under the …”

“Q My question is to Dr Sarah Cox. What do you think will be the impact on palliative care of introducing assisted dying? Dr Cox: Professor Ahmedzai has talked about the evidence, which was written up to 10 years ago. There is actually more recent evidence, looking at the last 10 years, where European countries and Amer…”

“Q What would a more sustainable model of funding for palliative care look like?”

“Yes, the 5,400. That is really, really helpful. Thank you. Effectively, the SDS40 and some of the other measures reduce the shortfall in capacity by roughly 7,000.”

“It went up, but just not to the maximum. It did not go up to 113,000, which is the maximum.”

“That is helpful. Thank you. Just linking back to the previous hearing we had where we talked about the significant remand population, the number you gave us at that hearing was 17,600, so it is actually 20% of the prison population. I am not going to go over old ground that we went over before, but I am interested in s…”

“It is really nice to see you again, Dame Antonia. I wanted to move on and talk a little bit about the capacity shortfall numbers. I was hoping you could help me to understand the numbers in the first instance, because that would be really helpful for the Committee. I can see from paragraph 3.5 in the NAO Report that by…”

“No, absolutely. Do you have any thoughts on how long SDS40 is going to need to continue in order to allow you to manage the very challenging situation that you have at the moment?”

“I fully appreciate the challenge you are under with that, because, as I said at the beginning, 20% of the prison population are on remand. That is a really, really difficult thing to manage. I appreciate you obviously did not make the decisions around the court sitting days, but I am interested in what the capacity sho…”

“It is relevant in terms of understanding the capacity shortfall.”