Jersey approves bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults
Jersey’s parliament has given final approval to a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults who live on the island.Members of the States Assembly voted by 32 to 16 on Thursday in favour of the bill, which will now need royal assent before it becomes law.A private member’s bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is being scrutinised by the House of Lords, with some campaigners accusing peers of obstructing its passage.The bill, introduced by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024, would allow adults with a prognosis of six months or fewer to live to have the option of an assisted death.It can become law only if both Houses of Parliament agree on its final wording.
This must happen before early May, when the parliamentary session is due to end.Members of the Lords have proposed more than 1,000 amendments to the bill, raising concerns among its supporters that they are trying to block it from becoming law despite having been approved by elected MPs.In Wales, the Senedd voted this week in favour of assisted dying services being made available on the Welsh NHS if Leadbeater’s bill becomes law.If the proposal had been rejected, assisted dying services in Wales would have been available only privately.Under the Jersey legislation, mentally competent adults with a terminal illness who have been resident on the island for 12 months would be eligible to opt for an assisted death.
An assisted dying service is expected to take at least 18 months to set up.Jersey residents had indicated their support for the legalisation, with 61% backing it in a 2024 poll.A citizens’ jury in 2021 recommended that assisted dying be permitted in Jersey under specified circumstances.Matthew Jowitt, Jersey’s attorney general, said he would be “astonished” if royal assent was not granted.He told the States Assembly: “If it [wasn’t], we would be facing a constitutional difficulty of some magnitude.
”The minister for health and social services in Jersey, Tom Binet, said: “Jersey would have one of the safest and most transparent assisted dying laws in the world.”Louise Doublet, a States Assembly member, said: “This is one of the most meaningful things we can do for our island.“It is a compassionate gift we are giving our island.As a humanist, I am guided by principles of compassion … It will make some really difficult moments in people’s lives a little bit less painful.”The Isle of Man became the first place in the British isles to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people last March, but the legislation has yet to receive royal assent.
Under the provisions of the bill, adults with a prognosis of fewer than 12 months to live who have been residents on the island for five years would be given the right to an assisted death.Royal assent is usually granted between three and six months after a bill passes all its stages in parliament.According to data obtained by the Press Association, the Ministry of Justice took an average of 88 days to process Isle of Man legislation over the past six years.But the MoJ has yet to process the assisted dying legislation after 337 days.Alex Allinson, who brought the private member’s bill to the Isle of Man’s parliament, the Tynwald, said this month that he had written to David Lammy, the lord chancellor, to ask the reasons for the delay.
He said it was “important to stress our close links with the United Kingdom, but also our constitutional relationship as an independent nation”,He added: “With our own parliament, we pass our own laws and we, as parliamentarians, are responsible for that,”Allinson suggested that it was not a coincidence that royal assent on the Isle of Man bill was delayed at the same time that a private member’s bill to legalise assisted dying going through the Westminster parliament was being held up in the House of Lords,The Isle of Man assisted dying service is expected to be operational between 18 months and two years after royal assent is granted,The Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson called the vote a “historic moment” that was a “momentous vote of confidence for compassion, dignity, and choice at the end of life”.
Ocado failing to deliver on its potential as one of UK’s great technology hopes
Only six years ago, the boss of Ocado Group was writing the obituary for supermarkets as he predicted that a surge in online grocery shopping during the pandemic had brought forward the hi-tech future.“Not every store will disappear, but there will be a dramatic shift,” Tim Steiner said at the height of the Covid pandemic, when shopping from the sofa became the only option for many.Fast-forward to today and the prospect seems distant as the UK grocery technology group again slashes jobs as it battles heavy losses.Shares in the group slumped more than 6% to 220p on Thursday, as it revealed worse than expected annual losses and 1,000 job cuts, half of which are in research and development. At that price, shares are 22% above Ocado’s stock market float price of 180p in 2010 and a staggering 90% lower than their pandemic peak
Subsidies for Rolls-Royce might seem a bit rich, but they are inevitable | Nils Pratley
Rolls-Royce, the engine-maker and defence firm that is spitting out so much cash it can shove £7bn to £9bn towards buying back shares over the next three years, would like UK taxpayers to find a few quid – reportedly up to £200m as a first slug – to help fund one its big bets. The company would “appreciate” financial support from the government to smooth work on a new engine, says its chief executive, Tufan Erginbilgiç.Outrageous? Well, corporate welfare for Rolls is obviously absurd in the abstract. If there is a definition of a company that can afford to pay for its own research and development, this is it. One might also say Rolls owes us a favour since it was the recipient of billions of pounds worth of loan guarantees from the UK’s export finance agency when the Covid wolf was at the corporate door in 2020
Riaz Hasan obituary
My father, Riaz Hasan, who has died aged 87, was a water resources engineer with a distinguished career working across 40 countries – in the 1970s with the British firm Halcrow and, from the 80s, at the UN and the World Bank.Originally from Hyderabad, Riaz arrived in the UK in 1965 with £3 and an A–Z, invited, like many engineers in India at that time, by the government. After completing a master’s degree in water resources at Bradford University, where he developed a love of Yorkshire pudding and received his degree from Harold Wilson (which he described as a real privilege), he embarked on his career designing life-saving, long-term water and food solutions for the most vulnerable and those affected by war, famine and natural disasters.Born in the small town of Warangal, near Hyderabad, to Mohammed, an English professor, and his wife, Khadija, Riaz went to Nizam college. He did his engineering degree at Osmania University, graduating in 1960, then got his first job at the Central Water Power Commission (CWPC) in Delhi
Met police to pilot facial recognition identity checks, mayor confirms
Metropolitan police officers are to start scanning citizens’ faces using automated facial recognition technology to check their identities, in a move backed by the mayor of London but described as “alarming” by opponents.The pilot was revealed on Thursday when Sadiq Khan said 100 officers would use the roaming technology – commonly deployed on smartphones – for six months. The mayor was responding to questioning from an opposition politician amid rising concern about the rollout of AI-powered policing tools. The Met’s website still states it “does not presently use the so-called operator initiated facial recognition”.Face scanning has already been deployed by police with cameras on vans and in fixed locations including in Croydon, Manchester and South Wales
Birmingham City’s owners explore moving into rugby union and buying Prem franchise
Birmingham City’s owner, Knighthead Capital Management, is among a number of American investors exploring the purchase of potential new franchises in Prem Rugby before a radical shake-up of the sport due to be ratified by the Rugby Football Union on Friday.The RFU council will vote at Twickenham on proposals to ringfence the 10-team Prem with no promotion or relegation until 2030, when a staged expansion is planned, beginning with the addition of two more teams.While former top-flight sides such as London Irish, Wasps and Worcester Warriors as well as ambitious Champ clubs like Ealing Trailfinders will be given the opportunity to apply, Prem Rugby is also keen to secure new additions. New York-based merchant bank, The Raine Group, and Deloitte have been engaged with a brief to discuss franchise opportunities with potential new owners, as well as bringing new investment into Prem Rugby itself.Knighthead is understood to have expressed interest in acquiring a franchise as the next stage of its multisport strategy that has seen it buy a 49% share in the Birmingham Phoenix Hundred franchise, and a majority share in Netball Super League club Birmingham Panthers
Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold
US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians.Tkachuk played in the Americans’ victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, which secured the US men their first gold medal since 1980. In the wake of that win, the White House’s TikTok account published video of Tkachuk saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fuckers a lesson.”Tkachuk never said those words and the video, which has had more than 10m views, is labelled as AI-generated.“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said on Thursday
Record number of rough sleepers in England last year, official figures show
Jersey approves bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults
Mumsnet calls for under-16s social media ban with cigarette-style health warnings
Cruel comments, racism and cover-ups: key findings from England’s maternity care report
CPS issues new guidance on ‘honour’-based and dowry abuse
UK anti-slavery watchdog calls for overhaul of adult sexual services sites