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The Report of the Iraq Inquiry
of travelling to the Falkland Islands to visit their graves. In subsequent operations,
it became MOD policy to repatriate bodies to the UK in all but the most exceptional
circumstances.
23.  The MOD’s policy on the repatriation of the dead was set out in a paper produced
by Lieutenant General Anthony Palmer, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel)
(DCDS(Personnel)), on 14 March 2003:
“Repatriation to UK of the dead is to take place wherever possible and as soon
as practicable.”15
24.  If fatalities were suspected to have been caused by Chemical Biological
Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) agents, then repatriation should only proceed once the
presence of a CBRN agent had been confirmed or ruled out, and then on the basis of
a risk assessment. In certain circumstances, repatriation might require mitigating actions
(such as decontamination or special isolation of the body), or the body might need to
be officially cremated in theatre with the ashes repatriated. In exceptional circumstances,
the body might need to be cremated and permanently buried in theatre.
Preparing to hold civilian inquests
The legal frameworks for inquests
Coroners are independent judicial officers. They are appointed and paid for by the
relevant local authority and their officers and staff are employed by the local authority
and/or the police.
Coroners in England and Wales had a statutory duty, under Section 8 of the 1988
Coroners Act, to investigate deaths which are reported to them when the body is lying in
their district and there is reason to believe that the death was violent or unnatural, or was
a sudden death of unknown cause, or in some other circumstances.16 That duty applied
“whether the cause of death arose in his district or not”.
Section 14 of the 1988 Coroners Act provided that, if it appeared to the coroner for the
district where a body was lying that the inquest ought to be held by another coroner,
then he may request that coroner to assume jurisdiction.
The position in Scotland and Northern Ireland was different.
In Scotland, the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 required
the appropriate procurator fiscal to investigate (through a Fatal Accident Inquiry)
any death which occurred within Scotland in the course of an individual’s employment,
or in legal custody.17 The Act also provided for the Lord Advocate to instruct a procurator
fiscal to investigate a death if it appeared to him that an investigation would be in the
public interest.
15  Paper DCDS(Pers), 14 March 2003, ‘UK Forces: Repatriation of the Dead’.
16  Coroners Act 1988. The Act was replaced by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
17  Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths (Scotland) Act 1976.
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