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The Report of the Iraq Inquiry
29.  Mr Gardiner wrote to a Home Office official on 18 March, the day before military
operations against Iraq began:
“There are a few matters outstanding but, generally, I think we are reasonably well
prepared, although there are bound to be things we have not thought of.”22
30.  The Home Office issued guidance to all coroners on handling deaths arising from
hostilities in Iraq on 26 March.23 The guidance stated:
The MOD had advised that, while hostilities lasted, it would not be possible to
provide evidence of the incidents on the battlefield which led to injury. In those
circumstances, the Home Office recommended that coroners should adjourn
inquests pending the conclusion of hostilities. Coroners “could expect to receive
in due course advice on when it might be appropriate to consider the resumption
of such inquests”.
Coroners should notify the Home Office “if the numbers of adjourned cases in
their jurisdiction seem likely to cause problems in terms of workload”.
31.  A Home Office official wrote to Mr Gardiner on 2 April to advise that, while the
Home Office appreciated Mr Gardiner’s “willingness to undertake the handling of all
these cases”, the extra costs involved would fall to Oxfordshire County Council and they
should be invited to agree the commitment that Mr Gardiner was taking on.24
32.  The official went on to suggest that, “wherever appropriate, it would be better for the
substantive inquests to be held by coroners local to the family concerned, as with any
other deaths overseas”. While that approach had not been adopted for the inquests into
the deaths caused by the 9/11 attack and the Bali bombing, in those cases the deaths all
arose from a single incident:
“In the case of Iraq, the deaths are occurring in different places, at different times
and in different circumstances. It seems to me, that unless there is good reason
to the contrary, single deaths, and multiple deaths arising from the same incident
and involving personnel from broadly the same place in England and Wales, ought
to be subject to local inquests where the family or families involved can attend
conveniently. Inquests into multiple deaths involving individuals from different
parts of the country might properly be undertaken by you, unless there seems to
be a more appropriate local coroner (e.g. if the deceased were all from the same
military base).”
33.  Mr Gardiner replied on 4 April, agreeing that it was certainly appropriate for some
inquests to be transferred to other coroners.25 Those would generally be single deaths,
22  Letter Gardiner to Home Office [junior official], 18 March 2003, [untitled].
23  Letter Cobley to Coroners, 26 March 2003, ‘Deaths Arising from Hostilities in Iraq’.
24  Letter Home Office [junior official] to Gardiner, 2 April 2003, ‘Section 14 and War Deaths’.
25  Letter Gardiner to Home Office [junior official], 4 April 2003, ‘Section 14 etc’.
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