Government to toughen laws that allow people to buy suicide drugs online
Sarah Sackman said laws are in place which stop people encouraging or assisting suicide, but added the Government would introduce more restrictions.
The Government has said it will tighten up laws which allow people to buy drugs online that can be used to take their own life.
Justice minister Sarah Sackman said the Government will also focus on ensuring that existing laws are enforced, as MPs heard about a 21-year-old from Southampton who was able to buy substances online to end their life.
Labour MP Darren Paffey said: “A constituent of mine in Southampton Itchen, aged just 21, tragically died after accessing pro-suicide online forums that not only encouraged self-harm but advertised how to get lethal drugs and how to exploit loopholes that allowed this.
“The substance used in her death can still be bought on Amazon today. What steps will the minister take to close these loopholes on those who enable criminality, and ensure that the law is actively keeping our young people safe?”
Ms Sackman said: “I’m sorry to hear about that tragic case in his constituency. Encouraging or assisting suicide is an offence under the Suicide Act 1961 and sending communications that encourage or assist serious self harm is an offence in the Online Safety Act 2023.
“But we are going to be tightening up the law to ensure that the situation that he’s described is addressed. And of course it’s just about the law, it’s the enforcement of the law as well.”
In 2023 the then-Conservative government set up a suicide warning system in an attempt to stop people selling or accessing lethal substances. It meant ministers and the National Police Chiefs’ Council could get data in real-time on deaths, to help see if trends emerged.
It comes as Canadian chef Kenneth Law is facing a trial for murder in his home country for supplying a poisonous chemical to people around the world who have ended their lives. He is linked to dozens of suicides in the UK, according to the National Crime Agency.
