Hansard

The debate is about whether the Scottish Parliament should give its consent to clause 43, on prohibition on advertising, in Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. I am speaking to the provision as described in the motion. My recommendation on behalf of the Scottish Government is that the Parliament gives its consent.

The motion in front of Parliament today is necessary to protect the constitutional settlement in the normal manner of legislative consent motions and is not a comment on the content of Ms Leadbeater’s bill. The Scottish Government does not have an opinion on the content or principle of that bill, which it is the UK Parliament’s responsibility to scrutinise.

Ms Leadbeater’s bill has no effect on Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, and neither does the motion; nor should the two bills be conflated, as they are undergoing very different processes in their respective Parliaments.

The Scottish Government’s view is that clause 43 is for a purpose within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, considering the schedule 5, section C7 reservation in the Scotland Act 1998. The C7 reservation covers regulation of, among other things,

“misleading and comparative advertising, except regulation specifically in relation to food, tobacco and tobacco products”.

It does not reserve advertising generally.

Therefore, we believe that the Scottish Parliament’s consent is required for clause 43 and that it should be given, so that we do not find ourselves in a situation in which the English and Welsh assisted dying service can be advertised in Scotland but not in England or Wales.

Let me turn to the substance of the provision under scrutiny today. Clause 43 of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill imposes a duty on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to make regulations to prohibit

“the publication, printing, distribution or designing ... of advertisements whose purpose or effect is to promote”

the England and Wales

“voluntary assisted dying service”.

The purpose of clause 43 is stated to be to prevent pressure from being put on vulnerable people or the undermining of national suicide prevention strategies through the unethical advertisement of the England and Wales service. By consenting to the provision, the Scottish Parliament would be agreeing that the English and Welsh service, if it was introduced, could also not be promoted in Scotland.

Effectively, we are making sure that Scotland could not be used to advertise the service and closing what would be a gap in these islands if the bill were to be passed and such a service established. Regardless of personal views on assisted dying or on Ms Leadbeater’s bill, I doubt that any member would wish to see such an anomaly.

In addition to lodging a legislative consent memorandum, I gave evidence to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 23 September, where I set out the Scottish Government’s position, as I have to Parliament today.

I have also responded to questions that were raised by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee around the scope of the powers in clause 43, noting that our recommendation that consent be given was

“based on the substance of the provision, not the scope of the enabling power, which will be determined by the UK Parliament.”

In that response, I noted that, as the committee had acknowledged,

“the exercise of the power in clause 43 is likely to have a very limited impact on the law relative to devolved matters”

in Scotland. Both committees have since indicated that they are content with the motion and with our recommendation that consent be given.

I hope that Parliament finds that explanation and outline helpful in setting out the Government’s position, and I urge members to agree to give consent to clause 43 in so far as it relates to devolved matters being considered by the UK Parliament.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the relevant provisions of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 16 October 2024, and subsequently amended, relating to the prohibition on advertising of the England and Wales Voluntary Assisted Dying Service, so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, should be considered by the UK Parliament.