The Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has this week launched a Call for Views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.
You can access more information about the Bill and the Call for Views here:
Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill
About this call for evidence
The purpose of this call for evidence is to gather views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. Those views will inform the Committee’s scrutiny.
The call for views and analysis:
- aim to help the Committee understand the reasons people have for either supporting or opposing the Bill
- aim to help the Committee understand how people would like to see the Bill amended
- will not establish whether more people support or oppose the Bill
The Committee will base any assessment of public opinion on published data from opinion polls. As responses to this call for evidence will be self-selecting, they cannot be assumed to be representative of public opinion and will not be treated as such.
There are two options for those wishing to participate in this Call for Views.
Short survey
This is for people who wish to express general views about the Bill as a whole, including:
- whether they support or oppose it
- why they support or oppose it
A summary of responses to the short survey will be published. However, we will not publish each response in full, or the names of people who responded.
The short survey is also available in Easy Read format for people with a learning disability, in British Sign Language (BSL) for people who communicate through BSL, and in Gaelic.
Detailed call for evidence
This is for people, groups, bodies or organisations who wish to comment on specific aspects of the Bill.
We aim to publish all submissions to the detailed call for evidence, with the exception of those that are made on a “confidential” or “not for publication” basis.
However, please note: If we receive a very high volume of submissions, we may not have the resources to process and publish them all.
Campaigning
We recognise that campaign groups with a view, either in favour or against the Bill, may want to encourage supporters to share their views.
All such submissions are welcome if submitted individually using this platform.
If we become aware that campaign groups are using non-standard means to channel their supporters’ views, we may be unable to accept those submissions. Examples of this include a high volume of submissions from a single Internet Protocol address, or submissions that appear to be machine generated.
We reserve the right to reject submissions that have reached us via third-party software unless we can be satisfied that they are the views of real individuals who have given the appropriate permissions and have been given access to all relevant accompanying information (including the Scottish Parliament’s privacy notice explaining how their personal data will be processed) before submitting their views.
We would encourage any interested campaign group to contact us. We can discuss how to ensure your supporters can respond to the call for evidence in a way that avoids the risk of submissions being rejected.
Even where submissions meet all the requirements, organisations might want to consider contacting us to discuss the most effective way to engage with this call for evidence to ensure that people’s views are heard.
A co-ordinated response might be more effective than encouraging mass submissions.
Other formats
The Scottish Parliament is committed to making its online content as accessible as possible. If you need this content in a different format, please contact ADBill@parliament.scot.
Deadline for responses
This call for views will close at 11.59pm on Friday, 16 August 2024 and no extensions will be given for late submissions.