header-logo header-logo

20 October 2025
Issue: 8136 / Categories: Legal News , Human rights , Health
printer mail-detail

Assisted dying Bill has 'long way to go'

The House of Lords has set up a select committee to examine assisted dying, which will delay the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Beginning this week, 12 Peers will take evidence from the Bill sponsors, professional bodies, coronial services and ministers, and look at how the Bill would work in practice.

Rosamond McDowell, private client partner, and Sir Robert Buckland, policy adviser at Payne Hicks Beach, said the committee ‘must report by 7 November, which represents a delay in the progress of the Bill but not of an order that would endanger its passage in this session of Parliament, which will now last until at least Spring 2026. 

‘It will have no power to stop or reject the Bill.’ They said they expect the committee to sit from mid-November to Christmas with a likely report and third reading in the New Year, and ‘then a return to the Commons for some legislative “ping pong” on amendments during late Winter/early Spring. 

‘In short, this Bill has a long way to go’.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Hogan Lovells—Lisa Quelch

Partner hire strengthens global infrastructure and energy financing practice

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Sherrards—Jan Kunstyr

Legal director bolsters international expertise in dispute resolution team

Muckle LLP—Stacey Brown

Muckle LLP—Stacey Brown

Corporate governance and company law specialist joins the team

NEWS

NOTICE UNDER THE TRUSTEE ACT 1925

HERBERT SMITH STAFF PENSION SCHEME (THE “SCHEME”)

NOTICE TO CREDITORS AND BENEFICIARIES UNDER SECTION 27 OF THE TRUSTEE ACT 1925
Law firm HFW is offering clients lawyers on call for dawn raids, sanctions issues and other regulatory emergencies
From gender-critical speech to notice periods and incapability dismissals, employment law continues to turn on fine distinctions. In his latest employment law brief for NLJ, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School reviews a cluster of recent decisions, led by Bailey v Stonewall, where the Court of Appeal clarified the limits of third-party liability under the Equality Act
Non-molestation orders are meant to be the frontline defence against domestic abuse, yet their enforcement often falls short. Writing in NLJ this week, Jeni Kavanagh, Jessica Mortimer and Oliver Kavanagh analyse why the criminalisation of breach has failed to deliver consistent protection
Assisted dying remains one of the most fraught fault lines in English law, where compassion and criminal liability sit uncomfortably close. Writing in NLJ this week, Julie Gowland and Barny Croft of Birketts examine how acts motivated by care—booking travel, completing paperwork, or offering emotional support—can still fall within the wide reach of the Suicide Act 1961
back-to-top-scroll