Coroners and Justice Bill

My noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford has with his usual eloquence outlined the arguments for the amendments in our joint names. However, there are one or two issues on which I shall probe the Minister further. In particular, I refer to the wording used in Clause 7(1), that an, ""inquest into a death must be held without a jury unless"—" then two exclusions are given—along with that of subsection (3), which says: ""An inquest into a death may be held with a jury if the senior coroner thinks … so"." I cannot help but wonder whether the wording might have been more congenial if it had been, "An inquest may be held without a jury", and then, in subsection (3), that an inquest "must be held with a jury if the senior coroner thinks it is a good idea". It seems to me that one subsection contradicts the other, rather than giving an alternative or an option. Perhaps of greater importance is subsection (2)(b), which refers to a case in which, ""the death resulted from an act or omission of … a police officer, or … a member of a service police force"," to which my noble friend has added, ""a member of the security services"." Increasingly nowadays we find that the functions, particularly of police officers, and sometimes of service police officers, are being carried out by officials in the private sector. For example, in my own part of the world there was, tragically, the murder of two soldiers outside Masserene Army barracks. It emerged subsequently that the security was provided not by the military directly or by the military police service but by private contractors. I shall not go into the details of the implications that that might have for the particular event, but there was an attack to which it would have been not unreasonable to expect some response from people who were not police officers or service police officers but private contractors acting as though they were police officers. Would these subsections apply to officials in the private sector who were acting in the place of police officers or service police officers, doing precisely the same job and doing it on behalf of the state and simply being employed because that is currently the way in which the Government seek to provide certain services?