A busy week in Parliament…
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
On Friday, the Commons gave a Third Reading to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 314 votes to 291, and the Bill will now go to the Lords. What will happen there remains to be seen, a view shared by Professor Mark Elliott who noted that “[a]ny argument that it would be undemocratic or otherwise constitutionally suspect for the Lords to do anything other than rubber-stamping the Bill would be wide of the mark”.
Further, The Times reports that the Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, has issued a statement to his constituents in which he says that “Setting up this service will take time and money that is in short supply”, which could divert resources from the NHS, concluding that “Politics is about prioritising. It is a daily series of choices and trade-offs. I fear we’ve made the wrong one.”
Abortion law in England & Wales
On Tuesday, MPs voted to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales. On a free vote, they decided by 379 to 137 to approve NC1, moved by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi , as follows
“Removal of women from the criminal law related to abortion
For the purposes of the law related to abortion, including sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, no offence is committed by a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy.”
The vote was welcomed by the British Medical Association, which noted that it will become law if the provision remains unamended by the Lords during its forthcoming scrutiny of the bill, and “[w]hile the amendment will bring about decriminalisation of abortion in England and Wales for women, many other aspects of the provision of terminations will remain unchanged […]”.
Registration of Births (Inclusion of Deceased Parents)
On Tuesday, Jen Craft (Thurrock, Lab) was given leave under the Ten Minute Rule to bring in a Bill “to make provision for the inclusion of a parent’s details on a child’s birth certificate where that parent has died before the birth of the child; and for connected purposes”. The purpose of the Bill is to amend the current law under which, where a couple is unmarried, there is no automatic recognition of paternity, so that if an unmarried woman loses her partner during pregnancy there is no provision for her to register his name on the child’s birth certificate.
The Ecclesiastical Committee has published an uncorrected transcript of the oral evidence it took on the Clergy Conduct Measure on 10 June 2025, here. The Chair concluded by urging the Church to reconsider sitting in public, an issue that a number of people have raised, as “the Church would gain from more cases being heard in public rather than in private”. In response to the comment from the Earl of Cork and Orrery: “Why are we considering passing it before we have seen the rules?” the Chair stated: “We do not have that power. We do not have a power to adjourn, as far as I know. We have a power only to say whether it is expedient under the 1919 legislation”, although it was noted that the Committee has a power to extend its deliberation and to consider the further evidence, if necessary.
Update: a corrected transcript of the oral evidence is now available here.
Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on Thursday. This new legislation updates key aspects of data protection law, making it easier for UK businesses to protect people’s personal information while growing and innovating their products and services.
Changes to the law include: clarifying how personal information can be used for research; lifting restrictions on some automated decision making; setting out how to use some cookies without consent; allowing charities to send people electronic mail marketing without consent in certain circumstances; requiring organisations to have a data protection complaints procedure; and introducing a new lawful basis of recognised legitimate interests.
The Act provides the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with new powers, including the ability to compel witnesses to attend interviews, request technical reports, and issue fines. The ICO has published information to support organisations and the public as these changes are introduced.
The Commons Research Briefing (7 February 2025) on the prospective Act noted:
“Part 4 of and schedule 3 to the bill would provide for the reform of the process of registering births and deaths in England and Wales. They would remove the requirement for paper registers to be held and stored securely in each registration district and enable all births and deaths in England and Wales to be registered electronically.”
Charities, wills and fundraising
The Fundraising Regulator has published the outcome of an inquiry into Centrepoint Christian Church in which it was alleged by the deceased’s relatives that the charity had prepared the deceased’s new will and that the will had been witnessed by trustees of the charity.
The Code of Fundraising Practice is quite clear on the point: “15.4.1 You (or your fundraiser) must not draft, or be directly involved in drafting, wills in your favour.” The Regulator concluded that the charity had, in fact, been directly involved in the drafting of the will and in doing so had been in breach of the Code.
Ecclesiastical Law Society – London Lecture
The ELS has announced that Professor Norman Doe KC will deliver an ELS London Lecture on Wednesday 9 July on “Move Over Lyndwood: The York Provinciale”. The lecture is free of charge but please book ahead of time using its website. This is open to members and non-members. The lecture will begin at 6pm and will place at the Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, Mayfair, London W1K 2PA.
As part of its monthly series of introductory ‘bitesize’ discussions of ecclesiastical law, focused on the Church of England, the ELS series of online events is continuing with ‘Bitesize’ discussions on “What is a Diocesan Chancellor?” with the Worshipful Ruth Arlow on 24 June, and “What is a Diocesan Bishop?” on 15 July with the Rt Revd Christopher Hill. More information and booking links are here.
Plans to submerge 12 Hindu statues into Weymouth Bay
Earlier this month, the Religion Media Centre reported that permission was being sought to submerge twelve marble statues into the sea in Weymouth Bay, as part of an Hindu ceremony to indicate that their life in worship is over. The BBC explained that the statues include five which are human size, weighing 800kg each, and belong to the 30-year-old Hindu temple Shree Krishna Mandir in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, which has been demolished and is being rebuilt. The ritual immersion of a deity’s idol into water, is known as a Murti Visarjan, signifying creation and dissolution. Preceded by a religious ceremony, they would be lifted by crane on to a barge which would take them out to sea.
As with the “burial at sea” of human bodies, for which there are three designated locations, the twelve marble statues require the permission of the Marine Maritime Organisation; the marine licensing application is subject to a public consultation which ends on 22 June 2025: MLA/2025/00048, Submersion of Hindu Idols, 01 February 2025.
Quick links
- Monica Kurnatowska, Annabel Mackay and Rachel Farr, Lexology: Supreme Court refuses permission to appeal in key conflict of beliefs case: on Higgs v Farmor’s School – though, curiously, they don’t name the case.
- Nick Spencer, Theos: “How much have your religious views influenced your decision?”: religion and the assisted dying debate.
Updated: 2 July 2025 at 19:30.
As we note above, the Code of Fundraising Practice states at 15.4.1 that charities or their fundraisers “must not draft, or be directly involved in drafting, wills in your favour.”
A genuine question for someone with a better grasp of charity law than mine: how, in view of that rule, do so many charities appear to offer to draft wills cheaply or for free? Eg: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/donate/gifts-in-wills/free-will-service – but there are umpteen examples.
(For my part, I used a competent solicitor and paid the necessary fees.)
In view of your comment I emailed the Fundraising Regulator and they have given their permission to publish their reply:
“Thank you for contacting the Fundraising Regulator, the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our Code of Fundraising Practice (the code) sets the standards for fundraising carried out by and on behalf of charitable, philanthropic and benevolent organisations in the UK: When charities offer a ‘free will writing service’, what they typically mean is that they are offering the services of one of their will writing partners, not that they will be involved in the drafting of the wills themselves. For example, using the link that you provided, the Macmillan Free Will Service gives 3 partner options online for England and Wales – Irwin Mitchell, Farewill, and Co-op Legal Services. Charities are permitted to offer these kinds of free will writing services. What they are not allowed to do is be directly involved in the drafting of the will. In the case of the Centrepoint Christian Church Investigation, we found that charity staff members were the ones who drafted the will, not a third-party partner. This is why they were found to have breached the code.”
Thanks, Christopher – that’s really helpful.
Thanks, Frank.
TEAM= Together Everyone Achieves More 😉
This is what Wes Streeting told his constituents via Facebook:
Assisted dying
Many of you will already be aware of my position on this sensitive and important issue, which touches so many within our care system, and our wider community and families, but I feel I owe it to you – the people who send me to Parliament as your MP – to explain why I voted against the Assisted Dying Bill.
There is no doubt that this is a major and profound social change for our NHS and our country. I can understand why many people who are facing terminal illness, or fear terminal illness, are seeking the right to die at a time and manner of their choosing and I have enormous respect for their position. I also have the utmost respect for Kim Leadbeater and my other friends and colleagues in Parliament who have supported this Bill. I’ve seen first hand how hard Kim has worked to listen to everyone’s views and take on board amendments to her Bill with integrity.
But I can’t get past the concerns expressed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Palliative Medicine and a wide range of charities representing under-privileged groups in our society about the risks that come with this Bill.
Gordon Brown wrote this week that ‘there is no effective freedom to choose if the alternative option, the freedom to draw on high-quality end-of-life care, is not available. Neither is there real freedom to choose if, as many fear, patients will feel under pressure to relieve their relatives of the burden of caring for them, a form of coercion that prioritising good end-of-life care would diminish.’ He is right.
The truth is that creating those conditions will take time and money. Even with the savings that might come from assisted dying if people take up the service – and it feels uncomfortable talking about savings in this context to be honest – setting up this service will also take time and money that is in short supply. There isn’t a budget for this. Politics is about prioritising. It is a daily series of choices and trade-offs. I fear we’ve made the wrong one.
This Bill will now to the Lords for further debate and scrutiny.
The Government is neutral on the Bill and my Department will continue to work constructively with Parliament to assist on technical aspects of the Bill.