from RightToLife
In a setback for supporters of assisted suicide, the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) may refuse to implement assisted suicide in the NHS in Wales even if the assisted suicide Bill is passed in Westminster.
After passing Third Reading in the House of Commons last month, Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is expected to receive its Second Reading in the House of Lords later this year. However, even if the Bill manages to make it through the Lords and attain Royal Assent, there is no guarantee that the practice will be available in Wales due to health being a devolved matter.
Yesterday, during a sitting of the Health and Social Care Committee in the Senedd, Welsh Health Secretary Jeremy Miles acknowledged that while the Senedd would be unable to prevent the Bill from becoming law, its members would have to make regulations to permit assisted suicide on the NHS in Wales.
Speaking to the Senedd’s Health Committee, in response to Conservative chair Peter Fox’s question on whether the Senedd could choose to refuse to implement parts of Leadbeater’s Bill, Miles said “In devolved competence, certainly”.
“And even if the government wanted to and the Senedd didn’t want to approve it the Senedd would have that ability as well”.
Miles added “In order for those regulations to be laid, which would be necessary in order for, for example, the NHS to provide this service in Wales, then a Welsh Government…would need to make a policy decision to be open to introducing the service, then to lay the regulations and for the Senedd to approve those”.
“So that’s in relation to services provided in the public sector… by the NHS, because that’s within devolved competence”.