16.3 |
Military fatalities and the bereaved
process”
and not a trial.215
Legal
representation could be provided in exceptional
circumstances,
and the MOJ had not refused any exceptional funding
applications
(from the
Legal Services Commission) concerning deaths in Iraq or
Afghanistan.
342.
Ms Prentice
continued:
“I would
also say that when I met representatives of the War Widows
Association
recently,
they did not feel that legal representation at inquests was
necessary, if the
families
were taken through the inquest process slowly and gently by the
coroner.”
343.
On 13 March
2008, in response to a further question from Mr Gale,
Ms Harman
(Leader of
the House of Commons) said:
“I agree
with the hon. Gentleman that if bereaved relatives with no
legal
representation
turn up on the steps of a coroner’s court and find that the
Ministry
of Defence
and the Army have a great battery of solicitors and QCs, they
cannot
help but
feel that the position is unfair. The MOD is very concerned about
the issue,
which will
be considered during debate on the Coroners Bill. We need to
give
bereaved
relatives at inquests a real sense of fairness and
support.”216
344.
A January 2009
briefing on the Coroners and Justice Bill advised that it
would
contain a
number of measures to ensure that any future backlogs of inquests
could be
addressed
more easily:
•
It would
create a new national head of the coronial system, the Chief
Coroner,
who would
be able to reallocate work between coroners and request
the
Lord Chief
Justice to appoint judges to act as coroners in complex
cases.
The wishes
of the bereaved family would be taken into account in
determining
the
location of the inquest.
•
Coroners
would have new powers to obtain information to help
their
investigations.
“Rigid restrictions” on where inquests and post‑mortems could
be
held would
be relaxed and the power to transfer cases to prevent delays
would
345.
The Bill would
also give the Lord Chancellor powers to issue statutory
guidance on
how the
coroners’ system should operate, in particular with respect to
bereaved families.
346.
The Coroners
and Justice Bill was introduced to Parliament on 14 January
2009.218
It did not
contain any reference to public funding for legal representation at
inquests.
215
Letter
Prentice to Humble, 19 February 2008, ‘All Party Group on Army
Deaths’.
216
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 13 March
2008, column 421.
217
Briefing,
28 January 2009, ‘Coroners and Justice Bill: Military inquests
briefing 28 January 2009’.
218
Coroners
and Justice Act 2009 c.25 Explanatory Notes, paragraph
820.
135