The assisted suicide bill’s shameful lack of scrutiny

Last November, when the House of Commons voted on her assisted suicide legislation, Kim Leadbeater told her colleagues that the Bill would face ‘further robust debate and scrutiny’, including ‘line-by-line scrutiny in Committee’. But judging by the disgraceful scenes at her Bill committee’s first formal sitting on Tuesday, Kim Leadbeater and her supporters have given up on any pretence of caring about scrutiny and fairness.

The procedural shenanigans began much earlier. First, Leadbeater, who gets to choose the committee’s membership as the sponsor of the Private Members’ Bill, subject to approval by the committee of selection, stacked it with strong supporters of assisted suicide (including five co-sponsors of her Bill and two government ministers who voted in favour of it), whilst turning down requests from experienced parliamentarians with relevant expertise to join the committee. 

The handpicked committee belatedly issued a call for evidence in January, leaving little time for interested parties to send in submissions. Leadbeater then sent a list of witnesses for the committee to hear in person, only to submit a new list hours before its meeting this week.