Jersey becomes second part of British Isles to pass assisted dying legislation

A second part of the British Isles has voted through legislation to legalise assisted dying, but concerns have been raised about delays to getting such laws on the statute books.

Jersey’s States Assembly passed its draft Assisted Dying Law on Thursday and the legislation will now go for royal assent so it can formally become law on the island.

The move follows the passage of legislation in the Isle of Man, where the Tynwald became the first parliament in the British Isles to agree a framework for assisted dying in March last year.

Supporters of a law change have raised concerns at the almost year-long wait for the Isle of Man Bill to be granted royal assent.

As Crown Dependencies, for primary legislation on the Isle of Man and Jersey to get royal assent and therefore formally become law, the Lord Chancellor – currently David Lammy – is required to make a recommendation that it should do so.

Analysis by the Press Association has shown the process to get assisted dying on the Isle of Man’s statute book has taken almost four times longer than other Bills on the island.

After 338 days, the UK Ministry of Justice is yet to process the legislation for royal assent.

A freedom of information request by PA shows that since the start of 2020, the Ministry of Justice took an average of 88 days to process Isle of Man legislation.

After the Assisted Dying Bill, the next-slowest scrutiny process was in 2021, when the Lord Chancellor received the Climate Change Bill 194 days before clearing it.

During debate on Wednesday, Jersey’s attorney general Matthew Jowitt said he would be “astonished” if the assisted dying draft law was not given royal assent should it clear his island’s parliament.

After the Isle of Man delay was raised, he told the States Assembly: “If it didn’t, we would be facing a constitutional difficulty of some magnitude.”

He described the “constitutional relationship” Jersey has as a Crown Dependency as “something of a ballet, and it requires all of us to avoid stepping on each other’s toes”.

Jersey’s parliament voted in May 2024 in favour of drawing up laws for an assisted dying service.

On Thursday, after three days of debate, the law was approved – with 32 States Assembly members voting in favour and 16 against.

Under the law, eligibility for an assisted death requires someone to have been resident in Jersey for at least 12 months, to have a voluntary, settled and informed wish to end their own life, and to be terminally ill with a life expectancy of six months, or 12 months if they have a neurodegenerative disease.

In contrast to the Bill being considered at Westminster, which states the terminally ill adult must take an approved substance themselves, the Jersey legislation would allow a doctor or registered nurse to administer the lethal drugs.

Campaigners in favour of legalising assisted dying hope a service can be in place in Jersey by the end of summer 2027.

But Alex Allinson, who is behind the Isle of Man’s legislation, has expressed concern at the lengthy delay his Bill has faced in gaining royal assent and therefore finally becoming law.

He cautioned that after royal assent, “a lot of work” is still needed before a service is up and running, including setting up support systems for patients, families and medical staff on the island.

A UK Government spokesperson said the length of processing time “depends on the complexities and sensitivities of a Bill, as well as any legal and constitutional issues”.

There is no target time for Whitehall to process legislation approved in Douglas and Dr Allinson told PA the lack of deadline is “interesting”.

The GP and independent member of the House of Keys, said Whitehall had not raised questions “fundamental to the principles behind the Bill”, and he insisted it “really is a matter of royal assent being granted so that we can get on with the significant amount of additional consultation we will need to do to bring it into implementation”.

The Bill, passed on March 25 last year, would make assisted dying available to terminally ill adults who are “reasonably expected to die” within 12 months, and they must have lived on the Isle of Man for at least five years.

An Isle of Man Government spokesperson said the law “will not be commenced until all required secondary legislation and the code of practice have been developed, consulted upon and approved by Tynwald”.

It is thought the implementation period for an assisted dying service could be up to two years after royal assent.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would apply to England and Wales, is continuing to undergo scrutiny in the House of Lords, with supporters accusing some opponents of trying to “talk out” the contentious legislation, but many peers insist they are simply doing their job of scrutinising a Bill, which they argue is not safe in its current form and needs to be strengthened.

Lord Falconer told the Press Association peers’ attempts to filibuster are “not the end of the road” for the draft law because of plans to invoke the Parliament Act.

The Labour former minister, who is sponsoring the Bill in the upper chamber, said: “The Lords prides itself on focusing on the things that matter and that most certainly is not what’s been going on here. So the tragedy is that a small number of people in the Lords are blocking a Bill that has passed in the Commons.”

“You’ve got the Commons, the Jersey parliament, and the Isle of Man parliament all passing it, and it’s the Lords that are blocking it in England and Wales,” he added.

Welsh lawmakers in the Senedd on Tuesday voted to give their legislative consent for the UK Parliament to pass the Bill.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is expected to be voted on at Holyrood in March.