Senedd votes in favour of implementing Westminster’s assisted dying bill | Welsh politics
Wales’ Senedd has voted in favor of introducing Westminster’s assisted dying bill, overcoming a constitutionally awkward situation that could force terminally ill patients seeking to end their lives to travel to England or seek private care.
In the debate, which lasted until Tuesday night in the Senedd’s newly expanded chamber, members voted 28 in favour, 23 against and two abstentions. If the legislation passes the House of Lords, another Senedd vote on the issue will be required after the Welsh election in May.
Tuesday’s legislative assent memorandum, a Senedd process used when UK legislation touches on devolved matters, was not a vote on the bill’s legitimacy. Instead, members voted on elements of the legislation – mainly whether the service should be available on NHS Wales.
The timing, as well as the vote, was unusual. Free votes were given to members of the Labor Party, Conservative Party and Plaid Cymru, making the outcome difficult to predict. The Senedd opposed assisted dying in principle in both 2024 and 2014, with many abstaining.
Several members also said the vote should be held before the bill has passed the House of Lords, when it would be clearer what Wales would consent to.
In a vote last year, the House of Commons refused to give the Senedd a veto over whether assisted dying is legal in Wales. The Welsh government said holding the vote now was an opportunity to influence changes being debated in the Lords.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, criminal law, including suicide law, is devolved. Not so in Wales, constitutional headache Experts say this has created one of the worst criminal justice systems in Europe.
During Tuesday’s debate, several Senedd members objected to the bill on ethical grounds, but many also stressed they would vote against it because of the sovereignty issues it raises. An amendment in Plaid Cymru criticized the “lack of comprehensive consideration of the constitutional implications of this bill for Wales”.
Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price, MS for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said the motion put the Senedd in a “bad position” but that not giving consent would “leave Wales to a merely private system” and lead to a version of assisted dying that is “legal but unregulated, available for some but not possible for others, and disconnected from the structures and services we use to care for people at the end of their lives.”
Before the debate, Welsh health secretary Jeremy Miles said that if the Senedd rejected the legislation, private providers could offer assisted dying services in Wales, or people wishing to end their lives could have to travel to England to do so.
Landmark legislation allowing terminally ill patients in England and Wales to access medically assisted dying was passed by MPs in November. But with more than 900 amendments proposed by colleagues in the House of Lords, it remains unclear whether the bill will pass both houses by May, when the current parliamentary session ends.
