Chamber and committees

We will move on to other parts of the bill and other members have questions, so please stick to the question that Carol Mochan asked.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for their attendance and their evidence today.

Good morning and welcome to the 33rd meeting in 2024 of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I have received no apologies.

We continue our scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. By virtue of rule 12.2.3(a) of the Scottish Parliament’s standing orders, Liam McArthur MSP, the member in charge of the bill, may attend the meeting if he wishes.

The first item on our agenda is to agree to take agenda item 4 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

No one else wishes to speak.

Is the bill sufficiently clear on the types of activities that would be regarded as assistance and would, therefore, be lawful for healthcare professionals to provide?

I have a follow-up question with regard to the bill’s financial memorandum, in which the estimated costs for staff training are £200,000 in year 1, minimal in year 2 and projected to be minimal in year 20. Is that realistic?

I thank the witnesses for their evidence. We will suspend briefly to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

We continue our scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill with a second panel of witnesses, focusing on potential implications for palliative care. I welcome to the committee Amy Dalrymple, the associate director of policy and public affairs at Marie Curie Scotland; Mark Hazelwood, the chief executive of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care; Dr Sarah Mills, lecturer in academic general practice at the University of St Andrews; and Rami Okasha, chief executive officer of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland, which is known as CHAS. We will move straight to questions.

Dr Provan, perhaps you could write to the committee with that breakdown of information that Sandesh Gulhane has asked for.

We have touched on the age of eligibility. The simple question is, is 16 an appropriate minimum age to make a decision on assisted dying?