Our letter to Lord Falconer

15th December 2025

Dear Lord Falconer,

Unlock Democracy does not take a position on assisted dying.  But we do have a view on reform of the House of Lords and consider it to be long overdue.

We note that more than 1,100 amendments have been tabled in the House of Lords to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.  We note also that a small number of peers are responsible for the majority of these amendments.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill should of course be the subject of detailed scrutiny in the Lords, just as it was in the Commons.  We welcome the fact that extra time has been allotted for this in the Lords.  

With this time now available, we believe that it is the responsibility of the opponents of the bill to use this time wisely to ensure relevant and significant amendments are debated within the time available.  They have it in their hands to ensure these amendments are properly discussed in committee.

But we also believe that this bill, which cleared the elected House of Commons, and the purpose of which is strongly supported by the public (78% of whom support assisted dying being legal in some form in the UK [1]), should be allowed to become law, and should not be derailed by a small number of unelected peers.

We, the signatories of this letter, look forward to your response setting out how you will ensure this bill completes its passage through both Houses in a timely manner.  We will support you in this endeavour.

We also await publication of the details of the government’s consultation on the next round of House of Lords’ reform.  This has become even more urgent and relevant since the filibustering by peers on this Bill.  They are reinforcing the case that an unelected chamber has no place in a modern democracy and should be subject to a radical, democratic overhaul.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Brake

CEO

Unlock Democracy

[1] https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/TheSalvationArmy_AssistedDying_251119_W.pdf