The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
jurisdiction
in 16 cases relating to multiple deaths or where the deceased was
from
Scotland.
He needed additional staffing and resources to deal with the
additional
workload.
Mr Straw and Ms Prentice both said that they were
“sympathetic” to
that request.
281.
Mr Straw
and Mr Browne agreed later that month that the MOJ and the
MOD
should
share the cost of supporting Mr Masters’
office,178
and in
October that their
Departments
should share the cost equally.179
The cost
for 2007/08 was likely to be
£230,000,
and £350,000 a year thereafter.
282.
In October, an
MOJ official advised Ms Prentice that there was no backlog
of
military
inquests in Wiltshire and Swindon.180
283.
The Coroners
and Justice Bill, which was introduced into Parliament in
January
2009,
included a number of measures to ensure that any future backlogs of
inquests
could be
addressed more easily. The Bill is described later in this
Section.
284.
Ms Harman
wrote to Mr David Johnson, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the
US
Embassy in
London, on 20 July 2006 about “the need for US co‑operation which
was
contributing
to delays in inquests” into the deaths of British Service Personnel
in Iraq.181
285.
The inquest
into the death of Mr Terry Lloyd, an Independent Television
News
(ITN)
journalist who died in a friendly fire incident with US forces on
22 March 2003,
was
conducted by Mr Andrew Walker, the Assistant Deputy Coroner
for Oxfordshire,
in October
2006. Mr Walker found that Mr Lloyd had been unlawfully
killed.
286.
In early
August, as part of the preparations for that inquest, MOD and FCO
officials
met US
Embassy staff on behalf of Mr Walker, to try to secure US
authority to use a US
Marine
Corps report into one part of the incident and additional material
covering the
precise
circumstances of Mr Lloyd’s death.182
287.
The Pentagon
advised MOD officials in late September that a redacted
version
of the
Marine Corps report could be used and that no additional material
was available.
288.
Mr Walker
then asked for US Service Personnel to attend the inquest.
When
that
request was refused, he ruled that the information provided by the
US was
178
Letter
Straw to Browne, 26 July 2007, ‘Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner:
Additional Funding’.
179
Minute MOJ
[junior official] to Prentice, 18 October 2007, ‘Overseas Military
Inquests: October Written
Ministerial
Statement’.
180
Minute MOJ
[junior official] to Prentice, 18 October 2007, ‘Overseas Military
Inquests: October Written
Ministerial
Statement’.
181
Letter
Harman to Johnson, 6 November 2006, ‘Oxfordshire Iraq related
Inquests’.
182
Briefing
MOD, [undated], ‘Meeting with David Johnson, Deputy Chief of
Mission US Embassy London
(16
November 2006)’.
126