16.3 |
Military fatalities and the bereaved
252.
In early
September 2006, after discussions with DCA officials,
Mr Gardiner alerted
coroners
that the additional resources he had received from the Government
were not
intended to
be “long term” and were only to reduce the current backlog of
cases.158
He
was,
therefore, likely to “increasingly be making transfer requests
under Section 14(i) of
the
Coroners Act 1988”.
253.
A DCA official
advised Ms Harman on 6 October that Mr Gardiner’s office
was now
receiving a
significant number of fatalities from Afghanistan, as well as from
Iraq.159
The
additional
resources announced on 5 June only covered inquests that were
outstanding
at that
date. The DCA had “serious doubts” that Mr Gardiner’s office
could handle the
new
(post‑June 2006) cases, once the pre‑June backlog was cleared and
staffing levels
returned to
normal.
254.
The official
commented that it was not helpful that the MOD continued to
repatriate
bodies to
RAF Brize Norton: DCA and MOD officials were meeting shortly to
discuss
that issue.
255.
MOD and DCA
officials met on 18 October to reconsider the policy of
repatriating
the bodies
of deceased Service Personnel via RAF Brize Norton.160
Points made
in the
discussion
included:
•
Mr Gardiner
was “considering transferring cases to other jurisdictions, but
in
limited
circumstances”. That was in line with established policy.
Mr Gardiner
would not
be transferring cases where there were multiple deaths in a
single
incident,
and all transfers required the agreement of the receiving
coroner.
•
Arrangements
for inquests relating to incidents in 2003 and 2004 were “well
in
hand”, but
there were still “serious delays” to later inquests and the number
of
bodies
repatriated to RAF Brize Norton was increasing.
•
One
unavoidable factor behind those delays was the need to wait for a
BOI
to conclude
before beginning an inquest.
•
It was
crucial to keep families informed of progress.
•
MOD
officials felt that Mr Gardiner and his officers provided
effective support
to families
through the inquest process.
•
DCA
officials considered that Mr Gardiner’s office would be unable
to cope with
the
workload once the additional resources provided by the Government
were
removed.
158
Letter
Gardiner to Harman, 21 November 2006, ‘Foreign Service
Fatalities’.
159
Minute DCA
[junior official] to Harman, 6 October 2006, ‘Oxfordshire Coroner:
Written Ministerial
Statement
on Progress with Iraq Related Inquest Backlog’.
160
Record, 18
October 2006, ‘Oxfordshire Coroner: Note of a meeting at 10am on 18
October 2006
in room
8.04 Steel House’.
121