Assisted Suicide around the UK

Since 2003, there have been eight Bills put before Parliament to attempt to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales, along with two further attempts to introduce the idea via amendments to other legislation. So far, all of these attempts have failed.

The most recent attempt to bring in assisted suicide was the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP in 2024 as a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Commons. It aimed to change the law to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with six months or less to live.

The Bill had its First Reading in October 2024, a formality that usually happens without debate. The Second Reading in November focused more on the principle of the Bill, and it passed its vote 330 to 275. After heated debate at Committee and Report Stages, it passed the Third Reading by 314 to 291, after some MPs changed their minds on the Bill.

This meant that the legislation passed on to the House of Lords. There, more than 1,000 amendments were added to the Bill as Peers recognised the serious flaws with the proposed legislation.

Since this was a Private Members’ Bill, if it were to become law it needed to complete its legislative journey by the end of the Parliamentary session in May 2026. With so many amendments to consider, Peers were granted considerably more time than initially given, with ten more days of discussion and debate.

However, it was not enough, and the Bill failed to complete its scrutiny within the House of Lords in time. Proponents of assisted suicide claimed that the Lords were dragging their feet and ‘filibustering’, but the Peers were simply doing their job of casting a careful eye over potential laws. As Lord Moore said in the final debate, “This bill has not failed on its merits. It has failed on its demerits.”

At present the Labour Government have not signalled a desire to put forward assisted suicide legislation as a governement priority. It is possible that an MP may bring another Private Members’ Bill in the next Parliamentary session, but it would need to be selected in the ballot for such bills. Advocates for assisted suicide, such as Lord Falconer who co-sponsored Leadbeater’s Bill, have suggested bringing that Bill back using the Parliament Acts. This would allow the House of Commons to vote to pass a bill that the Lords have rejected. However, use of the Acts in this way would be very controversial, and as yet no such moves have been made.

In Wales, devolution means that the Senedd can make decisions about legislation on any matters not reserved for Westminster. The legality of assisted suicide is one of those reserved decisions, meaning that the Welsh Government cannot decide to make assisted suicide legal in Wales.

Nevertheless, the Senedd voted down a motion in support of the principle of assisted suicide back in 2024, with a vote of 26 to 19. In February 2026, however, the Senedd voted to give its consent to assisted suicide legislation in Westminster. This vote anticipated the Leadbeater Bill passing, and did not make any decision about legality within Wales. Instead, it would allow assisted suicide to be provided by the NHS in Wales, not just with private providers, should legislation be passed in Westminster.

Four attempts have been made to introduce assisted suicide in Scotland since 2003 using the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament, the most recent of which was the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill put forward by Liberal Democrat MP, Liam McArthur in March 2024. Like the Leadbeater Bill in England and Wales, this would legalise assisted suicide for anyone aged 16 or over who had a terminal illness and with six months or less to live.

The Bill passed Stage 1, considering the general principles of the Bill, by 70 to 56. Stage 2 considers changes to the Bill, and 298 amendments were added, of which 74 were agreed to form part of the legislation moving forward.

The crucial Stage 3 began at the start of 2026, where further changes and amendments can be considered before a final vote on whether the Bill will pass or not. MSPs gathered to vote on the Bill on 17 March 2026, with many people expecting it to pass. However more and more MSPs expressed misgivings about the legislation and it eventually failed by 69 to 57.

Liam McArthur has said that he does not want to bring another Bill on assisted suicide to the Scottish Parliament. It remains to be seen whether someone else will take up the issue as a Members’ Bill, or if the Scottish Government will choose to bring legislation forward in the future.

At the moment, there is no assisted suicide legislation under active consideration at the Northern Ireland Assembly. Currently, encouraging or assisting suicide is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum 14 year sentence.

However, there have been rumours of a potential Non-Executive Bill (this means a Bill brought forward by an individual Member of the Legislative Assembly) being proposed.

A new pro-assisted suicide group in Northern Ireland was launched in July 2024. This regional group says it will work for a ‘compassionate assisted dying law in Northern Ireland.’

The Isle of Man became the first place in the British Isles to approve assisted suicide after a vote by the Legislative Council in 2025. It is expected that the law will come into force in 2027.

However, after the Tynwald – the Parliament of the Isle of Man – have agreed a law it must go to London for Royal Assent, since the island is a Crown Dependency. A Bill cannot become law in the Isle of Man without this royal ‘seal of approval’.

Once a Bill has passed the Tynwald, it is sent to the UK’s Ministry of Justice. They scrutinise the Bill and advise the Lord Chancellor about whether it should receive Royal Assent, a process which usually takes three to six months.

The assisted suicide Bill went for Royal Assent in March 2025, but has not yet been approved. In April 2026, the Ministry of Justice said it could not recommend the bill for Royal Assent unless more safeguards were written into the primary legislation.

The UK could technically block Isle of Man legislation entirely, but this power is very rarely used. It is more likely that changes or revisions will need to be made to the Bill, or a new law written entirely, before it can be passed.

In May 2024, the State Assembly on Jersey voted to approve plans to allow assisted suicide for those with a terminal illness ‘causing unbearable suffering’. Plans for legalising assisted suicide were already voted on in principle in 2021 and passed. The May 2024 vote was to do with how it would work in practice.

In January 2026 the States Assembly held several days of debate over the final legislation, and voted to approve it 32 to 16. It is likely that the law will come into force in summer 2027.