POLL: British public overwhelmingly concerned that assisted suicide law could result in domestic abuse victims being pressured to take their own lives

All Adults(n = 2091): NET Concerned 69%

Women (n = 1078): NET Concerned 70%

Why MPs should expect HUNDREDS of domestic abuse victims to die under the Leadbeater bill each year

NEW ANALYSIS from The Other Half.

The Terminally Ill Adults bill say those seeking assisted death must be terminally ill, and must not be being coerced into it. Many experts on domestic abuse have highlighted fears that terminally ill domestic abuse victims will be among those coerced or pressured into death by the bill. But how common will it be that the terminally ill person before doctors and the panel is a recent victim of abuse?

Why MPs should prepare for 631 of the 4,559 people [13.8%, or 1 in every 7] of those being assisted to die in a single year being a recent victim of elder abuse, and 1,051 of those requesting to be given an assisted death.

We must know this to decide how strong safeguards should be: because checks for coercion and domestic abuse in assisted death screen out nobody in the Australian states said to be the model for the bill, and the Government IA expects only 2 days of training to be given on AD, a small part of which will be on detecting domestic abuse, coercion and financial abuse.

The government Equality Impact Assessment  for Terminally Ill adults bill looked at how common domestic abuse is in the population–referring to the ONS’s Crime Survey for England and Wales data on abuse in older people and in women. They worked out how many of the population would die each year: 4,559 in year ten. But they didn't put this together: the government EIA concludes that "We do not have evidence on how many victims of domestic abuse have a terminal illness and would or would not want to request assistance to end their own life."

That is simply not good enough. This new analysis takes the same data sources on domestic abuse as the Government’s Equality Impact Assessment [ONS Crime Survey of England and Wales] and applies them to the Impact Assessment’s Oregon-style takeup of assisted dying in the general population.

Overwhelmingly those seeking assisted death globally are over 60 – in Oregon too. The ONS CSEW says that 4% of 60-74 year olds suffered domestic abuse last year, and 2.1% of over 75s.We’ve used the latest figures rather than the 2018 figures referred to for over 60s in the EIA (see below), as ONS only started counting over 75s in 2021. Most of those experiencing abuse are women (the ratio is about 2:1 female to male)– as acknowledged in the TIA Bill EIA(see below).

If domestic abuse victims are no more likely than everyone else to seek assisted death, we find that at least 145 domestic abuse victims would be among the 4,559 people assisted to die every year – around 3.2%, or 1 in 31 of the whole. This is considerably more than die through killings in domestic homicides (111 in year to March 2023[1]) and suspected suicides after domestic abuse (93 to March 2023): both of which are a priority for government to understand and prevent.

However this figure is likely to be an underestimate:

●         As noted in the TIA bill EA (see below), older adults are at increased risk of ‘elder abuse’. A global meta-analysis found 15.7% of older people experience this. In Oregon overwhelmingly those being assisted to die are over 60. Allowing for this would mean 631 of the 4,559 people [13.8%, or 1 in every 7] of those being assisted to die were a recent victim of elder abuse, and 1,051 of those requesting to be given an assisted death, in just one year.

And all the above assumes domestic abuse victims are just as likely as everyone else to request assisted dying. Unfortunately there is strong evidence to expect that domestic abuse victims will be over represented in those assisted to die:

●         As noted in the TIA Bill EIA (see below), disabled people are twice as likely to be victims of domestic abuse. There is not good data on how this interplays with terminal illness, but a terminal diagnosis is a disability in equality law[2].

●         DA victims are more likely than other cancer patients to be told they have a later stage of cancer, including "terminal" diagnosis – possibly as abusers prevent them from seeking treatment in time[3]

●         DA victims are already coerced into or away from treatment options in cancer care (Macmillan and Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse Research) - death will now be a treatment offered

●         DA victims being coerced into assisted suicide is plausible - victims are coerced into suicide with novel prosecutions for manslaughter already being sought by the CPS

●         Suicidality due to domestic abuse means 3-8 women a week die in the UK. A woman who receives a terminal diagnosis and who is - there is nothing in the bill that stops her choosing suicide should she face challenges in seeking refuge at the same time as her diagnosis.

●         the University of London found that victims of domestic abuse are three times more likely to try to take their own life.

●         Abuse escalates after a serious diagnosis and abuse risks are increased 

Missed opportunities in the TIA Bill EA: selected quotes:

Disabled people are also twice as likely (compared to non-disabled people) to be victims of domestic abuse which includes coercive behaviour (see reference 9) [EIA - data reference GOV.UK. Domestic Abuse Act 2021: statutory guidance.]

Women are more likely to be victims of domestic abuse (1.6 million women compared to 712,000 men in the year ending March 2024, see reference 37) [EIA. data reference 37: ONS. Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2024.]

Elderly people, who are in all other jurisdictions the main recipients of assisted dying, are often dependent on those who care for them (see reference 34), putting them at increased risk of elder abuse, although we have no data on this in the context of assisted dying. Prepandemic data (2018) from the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates 210,000 adults between 60 and 74 years experienced domestic abuse (see reference 38). [From EIA. Data Reference 34: Jahn DR and others. Perceived burdensomeness in older adults and perceptions of burden on spouses and children. Clinical Gerontologist 2013: volume 36, number 5. Data reference 38: ONS. Domestic abuse: findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales - appendix tables.]

We do not have evidence on how many victims of domestic abuse have a terminal illness and would or would not want to request assistance to end their own life. The bill requires the coordinating doctor (clause 9) and the independent doctor (clause 10), as well as the panel (clause 15) to be satisfied that the person is making their declaration voluntarily, without coercion or pressure from another person. [From EIA]

Evidence suggests that healthcare professionals lack ‘training and education’ regarding domestic abuse and may be ‘unwilling to engage in conversations about domestic abuse’ (see reference 15). We have no evidence on this in the context of assisted dying. [From EIA. Data reference 15: House of Commons Library, Research Briefing. The role of healthcare services in addressing domestic abuse.]

2.      Have Government and MPs faced up to the risk to domestic abuse victims from the Leadbeater Assisted Death bill?

“this bill could potentially be the worst thing we’ve ever done to domestic abuse victims”. leading criminologist Professor Jane Monckton Smith[4]

The recent civil service Impact Assessments for the bill stop short of describing a horror potential within Westminster proposals. This analysis by Fiona Mackenzie MBE, an actuary and the CEO of the Other Half, finishes the Government’s own workings to set out the potential toll that Government must plan for in building safeguards for victims of domestic abuse in assisted dying.

The bills sponsor accepted amendments to include training for practitioners after The Other Half, The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) and Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse highlighted the risk to those in abusive relationships.

But despite the government calculating that 4,559 members of the public may be ‘assisted’ to die in year ten, and acknowledging that 1.6 million women and 0.74m men suffered domestic abuse in the year to March 2024, the MoJ and DHSC didn’t dare put those numbers together to see how likely it is that the very victims whose suicides we try to prevent will in fact be given suicide by the state . Instead they conclude:

“We do not have evidence on how many victims of domestic abuse have a terminal illness and would or would not want to request assistance to end their own life.” Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: equality impact assessment

In February this year The Other Half told the Westminster Bill Committee that Government should plan for hundreds of domestic abuse victims to die each year by the Leadbeater Bill, making this method of death more common than domestic homicide and suicide of domestic abuse victims. This new and updated analysis completes the Government’s estimates in their own Impact Assessment[5] and Equality Impact Assessment[6] for AD

“This bill is designed to kill people – and that extraordinary purpose needs extraordinary safeguards. Government cannot avoid facing up to the reality before us, we have to understand how the bill could deliver the death of those we otherwise work hard to prevent. Domestic abusers already coerce victims into suicide, and into and away from cancer treatment options. Death is now on the menu of treatment options. Australian assisted dying regimes seems to never detect anyone who has been coerced: not surprising given doctors are trained for 5 minutes on this and the secretive system is designed to say yes to death for anyone who requests it. Westminster leads the world in recognising and responding to domestic abuse, and that means we cant pretend not to see the risk this bill presents to victims of it” Fiona Mackenzie, The Other Half

Our findings:

Based on the IA and EIA estimates for take up of Assisted Death in year ten of operation The Other Half estimates that for the often quoted 4,559 assisted deaths per year in ten:

●         between 145 and 631 of those deaths in that year will be of  people who were victims of domestic abuse in the last year, and

●         between 242 and 1051 requests to die in that year will be made by those who have experienced domestic abuse in the last 12 months.

This is considerably more than die through killings in domestic homicides (111 in year to March 2023[7]) and suspected suicides after domestic abuse (93 to March 2023): both of which are a priority for government to understand and prevent. In fact manslaughter prosecutions are already being sought against men who are believed to have coerced the victim of domestic abuse into suicide[8] here in the UK.  Research shows that victims of domestic abuse are more likely to need palliative care (as abusers prevent them from seeking treatment) and may be coerced into or away from treatment choices by their abusers, choices that now include death.

About this analysis

Domestic Abuse is the term used to describe abuse by current or former partners or family members. But international experience says overwhelmingly those assisted to die are aged 60+ an area where domestic abuse has been too little studied and called ‘elder abuse’. ONS data has only been collected on domestic abuse in over 60s since 2017, and ONS only began to try to collect data from over 75s since 2021. In addition, data on ONS data in the Crime Survey of England and Wales does not fully capture the Domestic Abuse Act definition of DA.  Nonetheless this ONS CSEW data is our lower estimate of domestic abuse experience in the last 12 months.

‘Elder Abuse’ is the primary data source on abuse of older adults covering psychological, sexual, physical and financial abuse. As Bows et al say “this abuse is largely perpetrated by partners or family members bringing it within the statutory definition of domestic abuse in England and Wales (Domestic Abuse Act 2021) covering the full range of abuse delineated in that legislation[9].”. The best global meta-analysis puts incidence of elder abuse in the last year at 15.7%.  This is higher than the ONS CSEW estimate but note that over 60s are especially vulnerable to domestic homicide.

What this analysis did

●         Take government’s impact assessment of take up of assisted dying in England and Wales, which looked at Oregon to estimate 4,559 deaths and 7,598 requests to die in year ten

●         Estimate, based on the same underlying Oregon data used by government, the age and sex of those seeking assisted death.

●         Use ONS Crime Survey data for EW -also referenced in the government impact assessment on assisted dying bill -  to give the % of the public who have experienced domestic abuse in the last 12 months for each age group and sex. Combining with the data above gives the lower estimate of the number of domestic abuse in the last 12 months  (242 domestic abuse victims to request death, and 145 to be given lethal drugs)

●         Additionally, use global meta-analaysis data on ‘elder abuse’  for older age groups as the higher estimate of true prevalence of domestic abuse in the over 60s. This higher estimate of 631 deaths and 1,051 requests to die.

●         This all assumes that domestic abuse victims are no more likely to seek assisted death than the rest of the population. See section 6 for discussion of why there are very significant heightened risks for victims.

What must Government do:

This should alert government and MPs to the scale of the challenge in designing doctor and death quango training which is 100% effective at detecting domestic abuse in patients requesting assisted deaths, and in safeguards and support which might allow those people to escape the abuse in a way that is not death by the state. It cannot be enough to say “they were dying anyway”.

The estimates in this paper are intended to guide government and MPs in planning the response to the scale of the problem that faces all of us. The higher estimates should be used in planning, as even one death of a victim coerced into it would be a monstrous harm by the state. The Government works hard to prevent the suicide of domestic abuse victims – why should our attitude to those facing terminal illness be different?

3.    How many people may take up the offer to use assisted death by the bill?

The Government assumes global slowburn Oregon is the model England and Wales will follow

Take up of assisted dying varies between states. The Government Impact Assessment believes that Oregon and Victoria are the closest comparators to the Westminster Bill. Note that these are also the states with the slowest take up of assisted death and are both approximately a tenth of the population of England and Wales. The Government has based its take up projections on Oregon’s experience, acknowledging that this is the slowest take up in the world, and assumes that  by year ten between

●         1,737 to 7,598 people will request to die by the bill each year, and

●         1,042 to 4,559 people will die by the bill each year, 0.16% to 0.68% of all deaths (respectively)

Is the Government right to assume this takeup?

It is hard to predict how many people will die by assisted deaths. Take up differs widely which may reflect death regime design or availability, or cultural context, or external factors like availability of alternative care. In our previous analyses[10] we assumed Western Australia was a closer model than Victoria for the Westminster bill. The VAD Review Board of the Australian state of Victoria suggest[11] that ‘doctor initiation’ may be the reason for takeup of VAD in WA (now 1.65% of deaths by year 3[12]) quickly becoming around double that in Victoria. Doctor Initiation is permitted in the Leadbeater bill, but not (currently) in Victoria.  There is limited research on takeup of AD, but we should note that takeup may be as high as 2.2% of all deaths in year two like in Queensland Australia.

4.   How many of those people are likely to be victims of domestic abuse?

There is limited data on takeup of assisted dying with key data points being age and sex. There are also limited data on domestic abuse prevalence in England and Wales. Note there is no data on domestic abuse prevalence in Oregon’s assisted dying, as there are no specific safeguards for this and data is not collected.

The UK is a leading global outlier in recognising domestic abuse in law. Even so, our understanding is new[13] and our data is poor[14], particularly on disabled people, older adult victims[15] and understanding of male and female experiences. It is likely that age and sex are the most available and relevant data points for domestic abuse prevalence in assisted dying in England and Wakes - although see section 5 for discussion.

In Oregon as elsewhere, the majority of those who seek assisted death are over 60. As the Government’s own document acknowledges, many over 60s are victims of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse in the over 55s was for a long time badged as ‘elder abuse’ and has  been a neglected area of interest with limited and diverging data.  The ONS only began collecting national statistics on the over 60s age group in 2017, doesn’t yet collect data on Coercive Control as fully defined in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and has not yet managed to collect domestic abuse national statistics for the 75+ age group.

There is limited data on elder abuse by sex – and data that the ONS collects on domestic abuse for over 60s has identical figures for

AGE: How old might those people dying by the bill be: age group take up of deaths in Oregon

SEX: Are people who die by the bill more likely to be male or female?

In Oregon, slightly more men overall use assisted death for ‘terminal illness’ than women, consistent with other states. Note that worldwide, women are heavily overrepresented in non terminal conditions which some doctors are willing to say are terminal, and which also slip in to Oregon’s law, like those with anorexia or arthritis.[16]

Domestic Abuse: How common is domestic abuse by age and sex in England and Wales?

The Government EIA points to a 2018 figure of 210,000 60-74 year olds in England and Wales suffering domestic abuse in the last 12 months (this represents 2.4% incidence in that age group). Of those 210,000, the ONS also says that almost twice as many women  (139,000) as men (72,000) were estimated to be affected[17]. Despite this, the Government assessment does not reference this split and concludes:

The bill would apply equally to all sexes and there is no strong evidence that it would have a substantial differential impact on any sex. EIA

It may be that the EIA uses 7 year old estimates because later ONS data is patchy. But this ratio of 2 to 1 female to make is fairly consistent over time. In March 2023, for the over 55s at least: “the percentage of people who had experienced domestic abuse in the last year was around twice as high for women compared with men”. In this analysis we have used the latest ONS CSEW estimate of domestic abuse/ The March 2024 figures give 4.0% incidence rather than 2.4% for ages 60-74, and very importantly now also include estimates for over 75s, even if these are not yet of sufficient quality to be official statistics.

The best international meta-analysis of elder abuse meanwhile, says 15.7% of over 60s have experienced this in the last 12 months. This figure is regrettably not split by sex.

We know older people are uniquely vulnerable to domestic abuse: the over 60s make up 25% of domestic homicide victims[18], despite being only 18% of the population. Given the increased homicide rate in this group, it is surprising that the ONS estimates lower levels of domestic abuse than at younger age groups.  For this reason, we use a ‘lower’ estimate of the ONS figures for all ages, and a ‘higher estimate’ which assumes the elder abuse meta-analysis incidence for older age groups.

5.    Completing Government’s workings: deaths and requested deaths of domestic abuse victims each year

Using the government’s assumed rates, the ONS estimates of domestic abuse, and a ‘higher’ estimate of elder abuse, The Other Half  higher estimates[20] that for the often quoted 4,559 deaths per year in ten: between 145 and 631 domestic abuse victims will die by the bill each year, and between 242 and 1051 requests to die will be made by those who have experienced domestic abuse in the last year.

Of those who die by the bill after suffering domestic abuse, it is plausible that twice as many of them will be women than are men.

6.    Are those requesting assisted death more or less likely to be victims of domestic abuse than the general population of this age group?

Factors which would increase this estimate:

●         It is already well understood that domestic abuse victims are more likely to be suicidal, due to suicidality triggered by the abuse, or through direct coercion into suicide by their abuser. This risk is likely to be further elevated by an escalation in abuse when receiving a diagnosis. Standing Together say a cancer diagnosis is a trigger for escalation in domestic abuse and abusers “coercing them into, or away from, certain treatment choices”[21], choices which would now include death. It is therefore highly likely that some victims of domestic abuse will be subjected to coercion by their abuser.

●         We have also not adjusted for disability given lack of data: but people with disabilities may be 2-3 x more likely to experience abuse. Some disabilities like “terminal” multiple sclerosis qualify for dying in Australia, any terminal illness (like cancer) is a disability (per the Equality Act) and causes disabilities.

●         We have not adjusted upwards for mercy killers – proposed by the assisted dying campaigns to be resolved with lawful assisted dying, a claim we refute in Safeguarding Women in Assisted Dying and instead highlight that these are domestic homicides. We found 5 of these per year, and Professor Hannah Bows of Durham suggests that the CPS sees around 12 of these cases a year.

Factors which would decrease this estimate:

●         The bill sponsor and others highlight the risk that coercion away from assisted death is likely to be more common. However we do not think this is a plausible basis for law, given abusers already work hard to disguise suicides of their victims as homicides, and will coerce victims into suicide, as shown by recent prosecutions for manslaughter.

7.    But won’t safeguards slow this down?

The key safeguard to prevent someone in a domestically abusive relationship being coerced or pressured into death by the bill are:

●         Checks that the person is acting voluntarily and without coercion – although as the EIA says “Evidence suggests that healthcare professionals lack ‘training and education’ regarding domestic abuse and may be ‘unwilling to engage in conversations about domestic abuse’” We note below that these checks identify nobody in the Australian states which publish data on this.

●         the introduction of training in domestic abuse for practitioners. This will be part of Westminster’s assumed 2 day e-learning training offered to those approving death requests (see IA on Training). If similar training format is used as in jurisdictions like Australia, only ten minutes of that would cover tests for coercion and domestic abuse.  See below.

●         The threat of criminal prosecution for coercion with a 14 year sentence , although prosecution for murder and a life sentence is no deterrent to violent ‘mercy killers’ in current law. Despite hopes of MPs to exclude these mercy killers from the debate on assisted death, leniency for these violent domestic killers have long been at the forefront of the assisted dying campaign, and this campaign has been highly successful in obtaining suspended sentences for most who are convicted. Unlike currently for a suicide or homicide, the Leadbeater bill will remove the Coroners’ duty to investigate suicides for deaths by the bill, families will not be informed of the death beforehand, and there will be no automatic police investigation, press reporting, nor Death after Domestic Abuse Report.

Attempts to Screen out Domestic Abuse victims elsewhere screens out nobody

Domestic abuse training for physicians, as now included in the bill, does not seem to screen out potential victims, at least where used in Australia. Domestic abuse training for Australian VAD providers makes up a part of a single module of one day of self guided e-learning[22]. Former Victorian Attorney General Robert Clark has seen the Australian training and describes[23] it as spending “5 minutes” of the online training on testing whether the person is acting voluntarily.

This is obviously not enough: and in WA, the ‘acting voluntarily and without coercion’ test which requires doctors to screen for domestic abuse has recorded no one as being screened out, in 1,851 people’s eligibility assessments so far.  New South Wales’s assisted dying safeguards on first assessment found 3 people out of 992 who may have been pressured or coerced: 0.3%, compared to 15% of Australian older people who may suffer elder abuse. Other assisted dying jurisdictions avoid this question by not screening for domestic abuse at all.

Per our previous evidence on this, the bill needs very material change to avoid being agent of death for abusers:

We highlight that this bill removes the coroners’ duty to investigate suicides. This should be reinstated. Other measures could to protect domestic abuse victims from coercion could include a statutory duty to provide safe accommodation for victims who are facing a terminal diagnosis (to avoid people finding it easier to die than access a refuge), a route for commissioning of Death after Domestic Abuse multiagency Reports given removal of the coroners’ role – where these could be commissioned by any party (state or member of the public), and very robust data collection and monitoring . None of these measures will be 100% effective, however.

[1] National police chiefs council Scale of homicide and suicides by domestic abuse victims revealed https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/report-reveals-scale-of-domestic-homicide-and-suicides-by-victims-of-domestic-abuse

[2]

[3] “IPV is linked to a higher likelihood of receiving a cancer diagnosis (Reingle Gonzalez et al., 2018), with some evidence that it is linked to a later cancer stage at diagnosis (Mejri et al., 2023; Modesitt et al., 2006).” Identifying and responding to domestic abuse in cancer care: A mixed methods service evaluation of a training and support intervention

Dheensa, Sandi et al. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, Volume 74, 102724

[4] The Other Half ASSISTED Podcast, March 2025, Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unuXZqm_uT0

[5] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0212/TIABImpactAssessment.pdf

[6] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0212/TIABEqualityImpactAssessment.pdf

[7] National police chiefs council Scale of homicide and suicides by domestic abuse victims revealed https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/report-reveals-scale-of-domestic-homicide-and-suicides-by-victims-of-domestic-abuse

[8] See discussion by Vera Baird on prosecutions for manslaughter for men who coerce into suicide, Centre for Women’s Justice https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/new-blog-1/2025/2/18/saving-women

[9] Hannah Bows, Paige Bromley, Sandra Walklate, Practitioner Understandings of Older Victims of Abuse and Their Perpetrators: Not Ideal Enough?, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 64, Issue 3, May 2024, Pages 620–637, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azad057

[10]1400 Victims, The Other Half, February 2025 https://theotherhalf.uk/1400-victims 

[11] Safer Care Victoria VAD Review Board Annual Report July 2022 to June 2023

[12] Voluntary Assisted Dying Board Western Australia Annual Report 2023-24

[13] See The Other Half Safeguarding Women in Assisted Dying https://theotherhalf.uk/safeguarding-women-in-assisted-dying

[14] See Professor Hannah Bows for discussion of neglect of this area of experience in research, and the inadequacies of data collection

[15] See House of Lords Library on definition and prevalence. ‘Domestic abuse of older people’, 2021, House of Lords Library, from: https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/domestic-abuse-of-older-people/

[16] See Safeguarding Women in Assisted Dying, The Other Half, November 2024

[17] This 2018 figure is before any data was collected by the ONS on domestic abuse for over 75s, but the split by sex of approximately twice as high incidence of domestic abuse in the last 12 months for females than males consistent with the data in the more recent ONS publications.  “The percentage of women who experienced domestic abuse in the last year was significantly higher than men for the majority of age groups (25 to 34 years, 35 to 44 years, 55 to 59 years, 60 to 74 years and 75 years and over). In these age groups, the percentage of people who had experienced domestic abuse in the last year was around twice as high for women compared with men”. The 2023 release does not give all age bands at a TOTAL level but is split by sex. The latest release for 2024 Domestic abuse victim characteristics, England and Wales: year ending March 2024 gives the TOTAL but not the male and female split.

omits age and sex splits although implies they are statistically significant for older age groups.

[18] Professor Hannah Bows

[19] Elder abuse prevalence in community settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Yon, Yongjie et al., The Lancet Global Health, Volume 5, Issue 2, e147 - e156, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30006-2/fulltext

[20] Notes on estimation approach:

●           Assumes age and sex take up of assisted death in England and Wales is in line with Oregon’s experience over the period to 2022 (as well as overall take up per Government IA). In 2023 Oregon opened its offer to out of state residents which has slightly increased take up at younger age groups.

●          Oregon take-up age bands are given only for ages 55-64 and so do not align with % domestic abuse estimate data for ages 55-59 and 60-65. So this analysis assumes that people aged 55-59 and 60-64 are just as likely to take up assisted dying: because take up of assisted dying increases dramatically with age and ages over 60, this approach is likely to underestimate the deaths of domestic abuse victims, by a maximum of c6% or 40 deaths per year. 

●          Lower Domestic Abuse Prevalence uses March 2024 ONS data by age

●          Higher Domestic Abuse Prevalence uses Yon Meta analysis Elder Abuse % for 60+ age groups and ONS statistics for those under 60.

●          Based on ONS and Yon Elder Abuse total incidence of domestic abuse by age: not split male and female given limited data and limited impact on results (c 2.5% difference in estimates tested on 2023 data)

[21] Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and Macmillan Cancer care https://www.standingtogether.org.uk/s/MAC19835_58683_Cancer_And_Domestic_Abuse_A_Toolkit_For_Professionals_Digital_Version_210x297mm.pdf

[22] WA, QL and Victoria use the same training (see https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/116784/pdf/). training content and approach set out in Ben P White et al, ‘Development of Voluntary Assisted Dying Training in Victoria, Australia: A Model for

Consideration’ (2020) Journal of Palliative Care: “Module 4 focuses on VAD eligibility assessments and contains clinical resources about decision-making capacity, coercion and elder abuse.” of the training given in Western Australian assisted death practitioners only require a 90 minute refresher every 3 years. See WA VAD Board https://www.enudge.com.au/email-share-link.php?ca=llQd3fP9Q2sVSvNMK1OnkQ%3D%3D&cl=PzzsVLE3SKY9iDbfoMJRoQ%3D%3D

[23] Robert Clark in The Other Half’s Assisted podcast, April 2025: Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEFDJj6pY8&