Coroners and Justice Bill

I support these amendments, with the very helpful caveat of the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen. The ideal would be for the Government to be prepared to take over the idea of a national or a chief medical adviser and to use their facilities for drafting to insert the points put forward by the noble Lord and the noble Baroness. Among coroners, there are concerns about medical examiners being appointed by the local primary care trust. First, they may be perceived not to be independent. The second concern is the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, as to the difficulty sometimes in rather small areas with small primary care trusts where everyone is rather hugger-mugger. The perception is as important as the actuality in having medical examiners outside the primary care trust. Maybe they can be employed for other reasons by primary care trusts, but for the purpose of being a medical examiner, that should come under a different system.