Wes Streeting insists major change to assisted dying bill 'doesn't change' his view

The Health Secretary has called it a "positive development" that pharmacists and other staff will be allowed to refuse to take part in assisted dying.

Wes Streeting, who is against changing the law to allow terminally ill people the right to choose to end their life, said this "doesn't change my view on the Bill as a whole".

The legislation as it is currently drafted means that doctors and other health professionals can refuse to take part but a new amendment, expected to be tabled this week, is expected to say that "no person is under any duty to participate in the provision of assistance".

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, will put forward the change, meaning pharmacists and any other staff involved in the process will have the right to not participate.

The Employment Rights Act is expected to be strengthened to protect employees who do not take part, and no reason will need to be given for opting out.

Mr Streeting was asked on Tuesday whether "those assurances, those changes, reassure you personally in any way".

He replied: "It doesn't change my view on the Bill as a whole, but I do think it's a positive development.

"I think the Bill as it was drafted always gave an opt out to doctors if they did not want to be part of an assisted dying service.

"And I think what Kim Leadbeater, who's leading this Bill process, has done is expanded that to include other NHS staff, including pharmacists, and I think that is a step in the right direction. To be fair to Kim and to other colleagues on a different side of this debate, one thing I would say for Kim is that she has listened, she's engaged, and she's led this process with integrity. On an issue of this sort of magnitude, it's right that the Government is neutral, that we don't take a position as a Government, and that we leave it for independent MPs to decide independently based on their own judgment, their own consciences and the practicalities.

"And I'm very sure when this Bill comes back to the House of Commons that we will have the same thoughtful and considered debate we had before because MPs are taking this really seriously."

The plans currently making their way through Parliament would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel.

Ms Leadbeater has said that she understands "not all people working in and around the health and care sector would want to participate in the provision of assisted dying".

She added: "I promised during the lengthy committee hearings into the Bill that I would look at how we could extend the 'opt-out' provisions and that is what I will be proposing this week.

"As a result, nobody will be at risk of any detriment to their careers if, for any reason at all, they chose not to take part."

The proposed legislation has gone through significant changes since it made it through an initial Commons vote in November.

A Government analysis released on Friday suggested that almost 800 assisted deaths might occur in the first year of a service being in place in England and Wales.

The Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade fought to change the law on assisted dying for several years.