Replacing a High Court judge’s oversight of the assisted dying Bill with an expert panel will not send the process behind closed doors, the MP leading the law change has insisted.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, is expected to bring forward amendments for a so-called “judge plus” system, after hearing concerns during expert evidence sessions last month.
Under the proposals, psychiatrists and social workers would be involved in approving assisted dying applications.
But opponents of the Bill said the new proposals weaken safeguards, and could lead to applications for assisted dying being held in private.
Ms Leadbeater denied this would be the case, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It wouldn’t be done in private, it would be taking into account patient confidentiality, but there would be public proceedings.
“And, actually, I think it’s really difficult to suggest that by having three experts involved in this extra layer of scrutiny that is somehow a change for the worse.”
As it stands, the Bill could see terminally-ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live legally allowed to end their lives, subject to approval by two doctors and a High Court judge.
Ms Leadbeater had previously said the High Court approval element made her legislation the strictest in the world.
She has now proposed a judge-led Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission that she said would give a greater role to experts, including psychiatrists and social workers, in overseeing applications.
The commission would be led by a High Court judge or a former senior judge and receive all applications and reports from two independent doctors, which would then be referred to a three-member panel chaired by what has been described as a senior legal figure.
Experts would face a “very strict recruitment procedure” to sit on the panel, Ms Leadbeater told the BBC.
They would examine “the two key issues that keep coming up in this debate, the issue of assessing capacity and the issue of checking for coercion”, the MP told BBC Breakfast.
A group of 23 MPs are undertaking line-by-line scrutiny of the proposed legislation from Tuesday, with the process expected to last weeks.
Fears about people feeling coerced into an assisted death have been raised before, during and since the debate around a new law.
Among the expert evidence to the committee in January, learning disability charity Mencap warned of the “extremely risky and dangerous moment” an initial conversation about the option of assisted dying could be.
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Shadow work and pensions minister Danny Kruger, who has been among the leading critics of the Bill in the Commons, posted on X in reaction to Ms Leadbeater’s proposals to amend the Bill.
He said: “Approval by the High Court – the key safeguard used to sell the Assisted Suicide Bill to MPs – has been dropped.
“Instead, we have a panel, NOT including a judge, of people committed to the process, sitting in private, without hearing arguments from the other side. A disgrace.”
The Bill will face further scrutiny and votes in the Commons and Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until later this year at the earliest.
After that, it is likely to be at least another two years before an assisted dying service is in place.