Department of Health papers on euthanasia and assisted suicide

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

Our Ref: FoI 55-20

1 December 2020

Freedom of Information Act 2000

I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission does not hold the information which you requested on 05 November 2020.  In our request you asked for the following information:

“Under the Freedom of Information Act, could I please request any documents, papers, reports, meeting transcripts, records, files or logs from meetings that have taken place at the Department of Health or related statutory bodies, pertaining to euthanasia, assisted dying, assisted suicide, patient assisted suicide, patient assisted euthanasia, doctor assisted suicide and doctor assisted euthanasia, including anything pertaining to the Republic of Ireland’s Dying With Dignity Act 2020, clause 7 which states:

7. For the purposes of this Act, a person is a qualifying person if he or she— (a) is terminally ill, (b) has a clear and settled intention to end his or her own life and has made a declaration to that effect in accordance with section 9, and (c) on the day the declaration is made— (i) the individual is aged 18 or over, and (ii) is a resident on the island of Ireland and has been for not less than one year.

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/bill/2020/24/eng/initiated/b2420d.pdf

 

Members of the Assembly may have asked questions on the subjects listed or tabled motions or other plenary items on these subjects.  All questions, and the answers received, as well as all items of plenary business tabled by Members, are published on the Assembly Commissions’ website in a searchable database.  Questions and answers can be searched here; and all plenary items tabled can be searched here.

As your request specifically mentions the Department of Health, I have attached contact details for their FOI department here.

 

You have the right to request a formal review by the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address.

If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,  Cheshire SK9 5AF who will undertake an independent review.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.  Please remember to quote the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS

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