16.3 |
Military fatalities and the bereaved
•
helping to
identify and locate military witnesses;
•
organising
familiarisation events on military equipment for coroners;
and
•
providing
support to witnesses.
202.
Mr Venables
also indicated that the creation of the DIU served to change
the
MOD’s
policy on legal representation at inquests. The MOD had tended to
be legally
represented
at inquests:
“But we
took the view that some families see that as intimidating. It
looked as though
the big bad
Ministry had turned up, so now, even if the families choose to have
a
barrister,
we tend not to, we ... send a case officer.”
203.
Section 343 of
the Armed Forces Act 2006 (AFA 2006), which came into force
on
1 October
2008, provided for the establishment of a single form of statutory
inquiry – the
Service
Inquiry (SI) – for all the Services.117
204.
The Royal
Navy, Army and RAF had previously held inquiries under
the
Prerogative,
Army Act 1955 and Air Force Act 1955 respectively.
205.
The MOD told
the Inquiry that the AFA 2006 represented the first
complete
overhaul of
the Service justice system in 50 years, harmonising practices
and
procedures
across the Services to provide a single system of Service
law.
206.
The MOD also
told the Inquiry that SIs had the same purpose as BOIs
(subject
to its
terms of reference, to establish the facts of a particular matter
and make
recommendations
to prevent recurrence).
207.
From March
2003 to 1 April 2007, military fatalities on Op TELIC were
repatriated
to RAF
Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
208.
In early 2005,
Mr Gardiner applied to the Oxfordshire County Council, then to
the
Home
Office, and finally to the MOD for additional funding to enable him
to carry out
209.
In May 2005,
the MOD convened a series of meetings with officials from the
Home
Office and
the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)119
to consider
how to resolve
117
Paper MOD,
2011, ‘Service Inquiries and Investigations’.
118
Paper MOD,
May 2006, ‘Coronial Issues’.
119
The DCA
took over responsibility for coronial policy from the Home Office
in May 2005.
113