The Welsh Health Secretary, Jeremy Miles, has said that the assisted suicide Bill does not “provide sufficient safeguards for patients” after voting against a motion in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) to consent to the Bill.
Speaking to the BBC the day after the vote, Miles said that he was “clear in my own mind that the fundamentals of the bill, as it’s going through Westminster, don’t provide sufficient safeguards for patients”.
“Although the vote yesterday was on the devolved areas… the net effect is to give powers in Wales to deliver a service that I don’t think I would support if I was operating over the border”, he added.
Speaking during the debate, Miles expressed concern about giving consent to what would be an unfinished version of the assisted suicide Bill, stating that they have found themselves in an “unusual position”.
The debate centred on a Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) pertaining to the assisted suicide Bill. An LCM is required under the devolution settlement where UK legislation would extend into devolved areas in Wales, since health services are a devolved matter.
While the Senedd decisively voted against legalising assisted suicide in principle in October 2024, only weeks before the Second Reading of the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill in Westminster, it narrowly voted in favour of the LCM on Tuesday.
As supporters of the motion made clear, the vote was not on whether assisted suicide should be made legal in Wales. Rather, it was a vote on a narrowly worded motion regarding the implementation of assisted suicide in Wales, should it become law.
Tactics employed on Tuesday by the Bill sponsors, Kim Leadbeater and Lord Falconer, seemingly “blackmailing” Labour Senedd Members to support the motion with threats about forcing a private assisted suicide service on Wales, have been heavily criticised online.