Savings and costs to be included in assisted dying impact document

A long-awaited assessment of the impact of assisted dying legislation will put a price on administrating the procedure for the first time and is expected to conclude it will save parts of the NHS money by accelerating the deaths of the terminally ill.

- Jessica Elgot

The Whitehall document, which is expected as soon as today, is likely to make difficult reading for both sides of the campaign, government sources have suggested. One said the language used in the impact assessment could be potentially dehumanising as it set out to quantify the costs and savings of the state helping people to end their lives.

It is expected to put a figure on the costs of enacting the change, including a tribunal-style system for assessing requests for an assisted death and potential costs to the health service.

But it will also assess if there will be savings from allowing people with intensive care needs to end their lives more quickly. The bill only allows those who are terminally ill with less than six months to live to end their lives. The document, which has been prepared by civil servants, will also assess equality and human rights issues.

Some MPs suggested the report was being deliberately released to coincide with the aftermath of the local elections. But one source denied it was deliberate. "When something like this is ready, you can't sit on it," they said.