Tax on surrender of life insurance policy

In 1981 my mother took out a life insurance policy with the Co Op, on my fathers life. After 18 years it was fully paid up. When my mother died in 2020, Royal London (who took over CIS policies) requested that the policy ownership was transferred. What I didn't understand at the time is that this transfer of ownership to me changed the status of the policy from "qualifying" to "non-qualifying". I'm informed that if the policy is surrendered any gains are treated as income for tax purposes - 40% for me. I have two questions: Could I use a deed of assignment to transfer ownership again, to my wife, who currently does not have any earnings. The surrender value of the policy is just less than the lower income tax limit, so I believe no tax would be payable if she owned then surrendered the policy. Are there any issues with this? If the policy was left to run and I claimed the death benefit, would the gain on the policy still be taxable? Many thanks.

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