Beginning this week, 12 Peers will take evidence from the Bill sponsors, professional bodies, coronial services and ministers, and look at how the Bill would work in practice.
Rosamond McDowell, private client partner, Payne Hicks Beach, said the committee ‘must report by 7 November, which represents a delay in the progress of the Bill but not of an order that would endanger its passage in this session of Parliament, which will now last until at least Spring 2026.
‘It will have no power to stop or reject the Bill.’ McDowell said she expects the committee to sit from mid-November to Christmas with a likely report and third reading in the New Year, and ‘then a return to the Commons for some legislative “ping pong” on amendments during late Winter/early Spring.
‘In short, this Bill has a long way to go’.