16.3 |
Military fatalities and the bereaved
262.
Discussions on
whether a Fatal Accident Inquiry could be held for all
Scottish
fatalities
are addressed later in this Section.
263.
On 13
December, a DCA official advised Ms Harman that the
Oxfordshire
Coroner’s
office continued to receive a significant number of fatalities from
Iraq and
Afghanistan
(15 and 33 respectively, since June).165
The DCA
continued to have serious
doubts
about whether it could cope with that workload. The Coroner’s
office had “raised
the
possibility” of extending the additional staff until all inquests
(pre‑ and post‑June
2006) had
been cleared, but the DCA had advised them that that would be a
matter
for
Oxfordshire County Council.
264.
Ms Harman
told the House of Commons on 18 December that, following
the
4 December
meeting, the DCA was “working on providing families with better
information
about the
inquest system, how we can help families to have access to all
material
relevant to
the inquest, and holding inquests closer to where the relatives
live”.166
265.
Ms Harman
wrote to Mr Browne on the same day, highlighting five areas
identified
at the 4
December meeting where changes might improve a family’s
experience:
•
Holding the
inquest closer to the family’s home, rather than in Oxford. The
DCA
was
encouraging Mr Gardiner to transfer cases to other coroners as
a way of
reducing
his backlog. Another possibility would be to repatriate the bodies
of
deceased
Service Personnel directly to the family’s local coroner without
any
involvement
by the Oxfordshire Coroner.167
•
Creating an
information pack for families of deceased Service Personnel
which
described
what to expect from an inquest and where to go for further
support.
Ms Harman
suggested that DCA and MOD officials should discuss the
contents
•
Establishing
a “victims’ advocate service” for families, similar to the
Coroner’s
Court
Support Service but tailored to address the particular problems of
families
of those
killed abroad and in conflict. The service could build on the
support
already
provided by Visiting Officers.
•
Ensuring
earlier and more complete advance disclosure of documents and
key
facts to
families.
•
Ending the
practice of charging families for access to documents,
including
inquest
transcripts.
165
Minute DCA
[junior official] to Harman, 13 December 2006, ‘Oxfordshire
Coroner: Written Ministerial
Statement
on Progress with Iraq Related Inquest Backlog’.
166
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 18
December 2006, column 116WS.
167
Letter
Harman to Browne, 18 December 2006, ‘Proposals Arising from Meeting
with Relatives
of Service
Personnel on their Experience of the Inquest System’.
168
The
resulting booklet, MOD &
MOJ Boards of Inquiry and Coroners’ Inquests: Information for
Bereaved
Families
(2008), was
published in early 2008.
123