WESTMINSTER — The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will run out of time in the current session of Parliament when its final debate ends on Friday in the House of Lords. Friday marks the 14th and final day of committee for the bill in the Lords, with no further debate time allocated in the current session.

MPs first voted in favour of the bill on 29 November 2024, supporting it in principle by a majority of 55. The House of Commons cleared the bill on 20 June 2025 with a majority of 23. The Lords has not completed all required stages. More than 1,200 amendments were tabled in the Lords, a record high for a bill introduced by a backbencher.

The bill was introduced in the Commons by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. Leadbeater said there were MPs willing to take the same bill on during the next session if they were successful in the private members' bill ballot, which guarantees debating time on Fridays. She said she hoped the bill would then clear the Commons again and agreement could be reached with peers over amendments.

Leadbeater acknowledged that the powers in the Parliament Acts could be used to prevent the bill from failing again. Under those Acts, if an identical bill passes the Commons a second time, the Lords cannot prevent it progressing and it will become law at the end of that second session without peers' approval. The Parliament Acts were last used in 2004 to push through a ban on fox hunting. "We don't want to get to that stage, we want this to go through the normal legislative process," Leadbeater said.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said peers had been scrutinising the bill line by line and that criticising the number of amendments tabled was a "red herring." She said: "When it fails the biggest reason is because it's a poorly written bill. It was written in haste and there are so many gaps in it that a number of peers are really uncomfortable with this particular bill, even though they may be in favour of the principle." She added: "But if we're going to do this, we have to have safeguards and I really don't think there are anywhere near enough safeguards in it."

Lord Falconer of Thoroton has tabled a proposal to allow peers to discuss the issue generally on Friday rather than continue making progress through the amendment paper. The next session of Parliament will begin on 13 May.