The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
256.
The meeting
considered a number of options, and agreed that:
•
The MOD
should continue to use RAF Brize Norton.
•
MOD policy
should be amended, so that when a death occurred (and before
the
body was
repatriated), the appropriate local coroner would be alerted that
the
body of the
deceased would be coming into their district.
•
The body
would be taken to the local coroner immediately after the
repatriation
ceremony.
Such a policy “would avoid the need to involve the
Oxfordshire
Coroner at
all”.
257.
Ms Harman
wrote to Mr Gardiner on 17 November, following up on
discussions
between
Mr Gardiner and DCA officials, to seek his views on that
approach.161
258.
Mr Gardiner
replied on 21 November, recalling that the Coroner’s Act
required
him to hold
an inquest if he was informed that a body was within his
jurisdiction and the
death
appeared violent or unnatural, and advised:
“In
practice it is inevitable that I will be informed, either directly
or through my
Officers,
of any bodies in my jurisdiction. Indeed ... I would be failing in
my duties
if
I had not over the years established appropriate lines of
communication.”162
259.
Mr Gardiner
also advised that he had had informal discussions with a number
of
coroners,
and most of them had indicated that they would accept transfers
from him
under
Section 14 of the Coroners Act. Since he had alerted coroners to
the likelihood
that he
would be transferring more cases (in early September), he had
transferred
three
cases.
260.
On 4 December,
Ms Harman met relatives of Service Personnel killed in Iraq
to
discuss
their experience of the investigation and inquest process and the
coroners’
service.163
The
meeting, which was facilitated by an external organisation called
Opinion
Leader, was
attended by 17 relatives from 12 families.
261.
A record of
the meeting by a DCA official highlighted relatives’ concern over
the
distance
they had to travel to inquests (there was a “particular difficulty”
with Scottish
fatalities
as there was no discretion to hold a Fatal Accident Inquiry in
Scotland where
the death
occurred overseas), and the perceived failure of the MOD to provide
them
with all
documentation before the inquest.164
The
official commented that the Oxfordshire
Coroner had
been encouraged to transfer cases to other coroners. The DCA was
also
exploring
ways to transfer a body directly to a local coroner.
161
Letter
Harman to Gardiner, 17 November 2006, ‘Iraq and Afghanistan
Fatalities: Handling
Future Inquests’.
162
Letter
Gardiner to Harman, 21 November 2006, ‘Foreign Service
Fatalities’.
163
Report
Opinion Leader, January 2007, ‘DCA Meeting with Families of
Military Personnel who Lost
their Lives
in Iraq’.
164
Email DCA
[junior official] to Burden, 8 December 2006, ‘Short Paper on
Actions from Iraq Inquest
Meeting
with Families’ attaching Paper, [undated], ‘Actions from Iraq
Inquest Meeting with Families’.
122