Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
On 16 October, Kim Leadbeater, supported by a number of other MPs, presented the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (a ballot bill under SO No. 57): “A Bill to allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards, to be assisted to end their own life; and for connected purposes”. The Bill was read the first time, ordered to be read a second time on Friday 29 November and to be printed. We will post a link when the Bill appears.
Ahead of the Bill, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a statement warning against legally-assisted suicide. Links to materials on earlier debates and other issues are here, and in April 2024 the House of Commons Library produced a briefing on the law of assisting suicide in England and Wales. It examines recent parliamentary activity, developments in other legal jurisdictions, human rights challenges, and stakeholders’ views.
Prospect has published an edited transcript of a discussion on assisted dying between Rowan Williams and Brenda Hale, here.
Section 2(2) Forfeiture Act 1982
The case of Philip Morris v James Morris, Kate Shmuel and Gregory White [2024] EWHC 2554 (Ch), summarized by Rosalind English of 1 Crown Office Row, concerned the forfeiture rule under section 2(2) of the Forfeiture Act 1982 as it applies to the estates of people who travel to Switzerland for assisted dying. She comments:
“There are very few reported decisions on the approach the court should take on an application to modify the forfeiture rule, but the 1982 Act requires the court to have particular regard to the conduct of both the deceased and the person assisting the death when determining the justice of the case. In Dunbar v Plant [1998] Ch 412, Philips LJ explained that there were clear indications in the Act that there were circumstances in which the public interest did not require the imposition of any penal sanction, a consideration which he linked directly to the proper application of the forfeiture rule…”.
and concludes:
“This judgment is another nail in the coffin of the criminalisation of assisted suicide. But it should never have been necessary in the first place for [the deceased’s widower] and other family members to incur the expense and delay of court proceedings to ensure that he was not denied access to her estate”.
Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill
On 16 October, the Upper House continued its consideration of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill, which we summarized here, and for which there is a House of Lords Briefing. The Bill, which was introduced by the Government at the request of the Church of England, aims to increase the number of women bishops in the Lords by extending the period in which vacancies among the Lords Spiritual are to be filled by bishops who are women until 2030. It was committed to a Committee of the whole House: sitting date unspecified.
And yet more on bishops in the Lords
The Times reports that Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge), the former Conservative chief whip, is to table an amendment for the committee stage of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (you can read the second reading debate here) which would have the effect of removing the bishops from the House of Lords. In brief, he argues that the Government’s modernisation proposals do not go far enough.
Which is interesting; but whether or not such an amendment can be debated is a moot point. Given that the Bill is single-purpose, Frank (as a former Clerk of Bills in the House of Commons) reckons that it’s unselectable on the grounds that it is outside the scope of the Bill. But we’ll see.
Silent prayer at abortion clinics
The BBC reports that Adam Smith-Connor, a physiotherapist, has been convicted of breaching an abortion clinic buffer zone in Bournemouth in November 2022 by praying silently near a clinic where a public space protection order was in place. He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £9,000. He is considering an appeal. [With thanks to Religion Media Centre.]
Regulating funeral directors?
The Independent Inquiry into the issues raised by the David Fuller case was established to investigate how David Fuller was able to carry out “inappropriate and unlawful actions” (in brief, the sexual abuse of dead bodies) in the mortuaries at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, and why they went apparently unnoticed.
On 15 October, the Inquiry published an interim report on the funeral care sector. Its principal recommendation is that, as a matter of urgency, the UK Government should establish an independent statutory regulatory regime for funeral directors in England to safeguard the security and dignity of the deceased.
Second Church Estates Commissioner
On Thursday, the recently-appointed Second Church Estates Commissioner Marsha de Cordova answered her first oral questions session in the House of Commons, including: Small Rural Communities; Former Church Sites; Access to Places of Worship; Independent Safeguarding Board Review; Recognition of Positive Impact; Interfaith Understanding; Ordination of Women: 30th Anniversary; Restoration Funding; Communication with Diocese Leaders.
Quick links
- HM Attorney General: 2024 Bingham Lecture entitled “The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism”: “It is simply legally fatuous and historically ignorant of armchair critics of the Convention to declare that its supporters somehow seek to undermine our traditions or should be dismissed as naive snowflakes.”
- Kushtrim Istrefi and Luca Pasquet, EJIL:Talk!: The law and politics of creation of the micro religious Bektashi state in Albania: we mentioned the project briefly a couple of weeks ago – Istrefi and Pasquet suggest that it is by no means as straightforward as the Albanian Prime Minister thinks it is.
- Law and Lawyers: Assisted Dying Bills ~ Background information.
And finally…
From a BBC report on the current prevalence of gang violence in prisons: “The most recent Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) report on HMP Isis – which currently has about 600 inmates – says there are around 136 active gangs in the prison, with about half of all inmates having a gang affiliation. There are postcode gangs, drug gangs, and religious gangs.” Religious gangs???