UK Parliament / Open data

Coroners and Justice Bill

I support the amendments. Schedule 2 sets out the Government’s policy that the coroner areas should be, ""the area of a local authority or the combined areas of two or more local authorities"," while the responsibilities of providing staff, accommodation and courts are set out in Clause 24, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes, has just spoken. Have the Government carried out any survey of the accommodation that is currently provided? I have experience of an old coroner’s court, local authority accommodation, magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts, but I am sure that inquests are held in places that are much less suitable than court buildings. The Government have deliberately, and as a matter of policy, decided not to include coroners within the Courts Service. If there is a survey, can we have some idea what its findings were regarding the provision of accommodation and the necessary adjuncts to it? If that information is not already available, no doubt the Minister can provide it to us by Report.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
711 c577 
Session
2008-09
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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