The amendments published this week would see an assisted dying review panel, including a psychiatrist, a social worker, and a legal member – a KC, Court of Appeal or High Court judge, or someone who “holds or has held high judicial office” – approve applications for an assisted death.
In a letter to MPs this week, Ms Leadbeater said the supervision of the expert panels by a judge-led commission and the process being subject to judicial review in the High Court “retains the judicial element which many colleagues were supportive of, while adding the extra safeguards provided by this multidisciplinary approach and is a real strengthening of the Bill”.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, he said: “The new plan: drop the judicial safeguard, replace it with a panel – not a court – without a judge, sitting in private, without meeting the patient, without family informed or able to appeal against an approval; and approval must be given if the easy test of ‘capacity’ is met.”.
The voluntary assisted dying commissioner would be appointed by the Prime Minister and must be or have been a Supreme Court, Court of Appeal or High Court judge.
Newly published amendments to the Bill include the setup of an expert panel to approve applications for assisted deaths “instead of the High Court”, and the possibility to have a refusal reconsidered by a different panel.
