16.3 |
Military fatalities and the bereaved
in November
2010, proposed that as inquests were non‑adversarial in nature,
legal aid
could not
be justified.
353.
Following the
2010 UK general election, the incoming Government first
announced
that the
Office of the Chief Coroner would be abolished, because of the
costs involved,
and then
proposed to leave the Office on the statute book but to transfer
some (but not
all) of the
functions to other posts and institutions.224
354.
In November
2011, following criticism in Parliament and from
concerned
organisations,
the Government announced that it would establish the Office of
the
Chief Coroner.
355.
The first
post‑holder, His Honour Judge Peter Thornton, took up the post
in
356.
The Fatal
Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 provided
for
the
Lord Advocate to instruct a procurator fiscal to investigate a
death if it appeared to
the
Lord Advocate that an investigation would be in the public
interest. This contrasted
with the
position in England and Wales, where coroners had a statutory duty,
under the
1988
Coroners Act, to investigate deaths which were reported to them
when the body
was lying
in their district and there was reason to believe that the death
was violent or
unnatural,
or was a sudden death of unknown cause, or in some other
circumstances.226
That duty
applied “whether the cause of death arose in his district or
not”.
357.
On 2 April
2003, two weeks after the start of military operations against
Iraq, a
Home Office
official wrote to Mr Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire
Coroner, proposing
guidelines
for transferring cases to other coroners:
“An aspect
of this we had not yet addressed is the handling of fatalities
where they
are to be
transferred to Scotland or Northern Ireland. I have had a brief
word with my
Northern
Ireland and Scottish counterparts. In neither territory would there
normally
be inquests
or other inquiries into deaths abroad. It would therefore seem
inevitable
for you to
accept jurisdiction for inquests in such cases ...”227
358.
Mr Gardiner
agreed with that assessment.228
359.
There are no
indications that the issue was considered again until
2006.
224
House of
Commons Library Standard Note, 24 November 2011, ‘The Office of the
Chief Coroner’.
225
Report of
the Chief Coroner to the Lord Chancellor, 2014,
First
Annual Report: 2013‑2014.
226
Coroners
Act 1988. The Act was replaced by the Coroners and Justice Act
2009.
227
Letter Home
Office [junior official] to Gardiner, 2 April 2003, ‘Section 14 and
War Deaths’.
228
Letter
Gardiner to Home Office [junior official], 4 April 2003, ‘Section
14 etc’.
137