Senedd votes to implement Westminster’s assisted dying bill as both Flintshire MSs back motion
Both of Flintshire’s Senedd members voted in favour of giving Wales the power to shape its own assisted dying services, as the Welsh Parliament backed a key consent motion by 28 votes to 23 on Tuesday night.
Jack Sargeant MS, who represents Alyn and Deeside, and Hannah Blythyn MS, who represents Delyn, both voted for the Legislative Consent Motion linked to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
The vote followed an emotional debate in the Senedd’s chamber in Cardiff Bay that stretched into Tuesday evening.
The Legislative Consent Motion was not a vote on whether assisted dying should be legal.
It was a vote on whether Welsh ministers should have the power to design and oversee how any future assisted dying system would operate within NHS Wales, including safeguards, oversight and Welsh-language provision.
If the bill becomes law, a further Senedd vote will be required after May’s Welsh elections before services can be introduced in Wales.
First Minister Eluned Morgan MS voted against the motion, as did Health Secretary Jeremy Miles MS.
Despite voting against it, Jeremy Miles warned members during the debate that if the Senedd had rejected the motion, private providers may have been able to offer assisted dying services in Wales while Welsh ministers would have had no powers to implement or regulate them.
The motion was approved with 28 votes in favour, 23 against and two abstentions.
The two Reform UK members, James Evans and Laura Anne Jones, both abstained.
All Welsh Conservative members who voted did so against the motion.
Plaid Cymru and Labour both split, with majorities in each party voting in favour but significant minorities voting against.
Among north Wales regional members, Llyr Gruffydd MS (Plaid Cymru), Mark Isherwood MS (Conservative) and Sam Rowlands MS (Conservative) all voted against the motion.
Carolyn Thomas MS (Labour, North Wales) did not vote.
Adam Price MS, Plaid Cymru member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said the motion placed the Senedd in an “invidious position” but argued that withholding consent would abandon Wales to a system that was “lawful but unregulated, available to some but not to others, and severed from the structures and services that we use to care for people at the end of their lives.”
A Plaid Cymru amendment criticising “the lack of thorough consideration of the constitutional implications of this bill for Wales” was passed during the debate.
A separate Plaid Cymru amendment that would have sought full Senedd control over the matter did not pass.
The bill has already cleared the House of Commons.
It is currently at committee stage in the House of Lords, where more than 900 amendments have been tabled, raising serious doubts about whether it can complete its passage before the current parliamentary session ends in May.
If the bill does not pass in time, it would need to be reintroduced in a future session.
Gemma Williams, from Carmarthenshire, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years and supports the bill, said: “I’m so proud of the Welsh Parliament today.
“Giving Wales the power to tailor how thand will hopefully ensure no one has to go through what my family did.”
Kathy Riddick, Wales coordinator at campaign group Humanists UK, said: “This is a hugely important moment for Wales.
“By passing the Legislative Consent Motion, the Senedd has ensured that dying people in Wales will not be treated as an afterthought.
“Wales can now shape an assisted dying system that reflects our language, our communities, and our NHS, and that protects people regardless of where they live or how much money they have.”
Graham Winyard, board member of My Death, My Decision, another campaign organisation supporting assisted dying, said: “This decision puts fairness and dignity first.
“Assisted dying will still be accompanied by some of the strongest safeguards anywhere in the world, but thanks to this vote, Wales can now make sure those safeguards work properly for Welsh patients, families, and clinicians.”
The Welsh Government has maintained a neutral position on the bill and on the broader question of assisted dying.
The vote does not change the law on assisted dying.
Criminal law on suicide remains reserved to the UK Parliament, and any change would require the Westminster bill to complete its passage and receive Royal Assent.
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