With time running out for the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, our new polling explores what Britons want to see from the parliamentary process on assisted dying.
Most Britons think it would be a bad outcome if the bill runs out of time in the House of Lords
In November 2024, More in Common published Proceeding with Caution, which found that most Britons support a change in the law on assisted dying, but that this support is contingent on strong safeguards and rigorous parliamentary scrutiny.
But while the public want legislation to be properly scrutinised, few want to see it fail simply due to parliamentary process. More than half of Britons (52 per cent) say it would be a bad outcome if the bill ran out of time, compared with just 20 per cent who see this as a good outcome. Among those who support legalising assisted dying, this rises to 70 per cent.
Even among opponents, there is unease about a process-led failure. More than a quarter (27 per cent) of those who oppose legalisation say it would be a bad outcome if the bill fell due to time constraints, although a majority (54 per cent) would welcome this outcome.
Many Britons have doubts about the peers’ motives
Just over a third of Britons (36 per cent) believe that the House of Lords is taking time to debate and amend the bill because they are genuinely concerned about the outcome; 44 per cent believe that
Reform voters are the most sceptical of the Lords: 53 per cent of those who voted Reform in 2024 say the peers are deliberately delaying the bill out of opposition, compared to only 29 per cent who believe they are doing so out of legitimate concern.
Meanwhile Labour and Conservative voters are the most confident about the Lords' motives: 45 per cent of Labour voters and 44 per cent of Conservative voters say they are delaying the bill out of legitimate concern.
Most Britons want the bill to be re-introduced if it fails in the House of Lords
More than four in five Britons (83 per cent) say that the assisted dying bill should be introduced again in the next session of Parliament if it runs out of time.
This includes 36 per cent who believe that the bill should be introduced and pass through both houses, but also nearly half (46 per cent) who believe that it should only have to pass through the House of Commons, not the House of Lords.
Support for legalising assisted dying remains stable
Since the Bill entered the House of Commons in November 2024, support for legalising assisted dying has remained stable.
Three in five Britons (61 per cent) support legalising assisted dying, compared to 14 per cent who oppose it. Support has remained relatively stable for the past 14 months - barely dropping below 60 per cent.
Britons take this issue seriously and want to see the bill properly scrutinised, but most would see it as wrong if it were to run out of time in the House of Lords after already passing through the Commons. If the bill does fail, it could risk undermining the legitimacy of the House of Lords and the Government more widely. On one of the most significant changes to the law in a generation, if this legislation fails because of parliamentary process, it could seriously damage trust in the institution. Not only that, Brits are increasingly willing to turn to something like the Parliament act if the Lords times out the bill, which would lose the benefit of all the Lords scrutiny. The solution that would be best for public confidence would be for the Government to find ways to keep the process of scrutiny going whether though extra time in the lords or a commission that would report back to parliament with the promise of more time to debate a new bill.
Luke Tryl, UK Director at More in Common