With the assisted dying bill dominating discussions and debates in Westminster, former House of Commons clerk David Natzler joins Hannah and Paul to explain how private members’ bills work – and why they sometimes don’t.

The bill to legislate for assisted dying isn’t a government bill. It hasn’t emerged from a Whitehall department. And it isn’t being steered through parliament by a minister. It is a private member’s bill, introduced by a Labour backbencher – Kim Leadbetter – whose name was drawn from a ballot.

So why might that be an issue? Has this particular bill exposed the disadvantages of this way of legislating? And what might be a better way of allowing backbenchers to make law?

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