Coroners and Justice Bill

I support the principles behind the noble Baroness’s amendment. I shall speak also to Amendments 77ZA and 114A. As a former assistant deputy coroner in the Princess Diana inquest, I was judicially reviewed, successfully. My expenses were covered under Section 104 of the Access to Justice Act 1999, which inserted a new section into the Coroners Act 1988. Coroners have shown me that there is nothing in the present Bill that replicates Section 104 of that Act, so Amendment 77ZA does just that. Its purpose is to replicate the existing indemnity enjoyed by coroners, who are extremely concerned, particularly with regard to judicial review, which is not all that unusual in the increasingly litigious age in which we live, and the possibility of some appeals outside the appellate process and on to either judicial review or the Court of Appeal. It is important that this should be in primary legislation. I doubt that it would be satisfactorily dealt with in subsidiary legislation, and currently there is nothing to show that coroners will actually be protected. I am sure that the Minister knows, having been at the Bar, that judicial review is very expensive. I would have been extremely concerned if I had found myself having to face the costs, with four leaders in my particular review, of having lost in the Administrative Court. The loss was on the basis of incorrectly applying the law, as I was told, so this is a matter of law, not a matter of a coroner necessarily going wrong in the ordinary way of dealing with his duties as a coroner. Amendment 114A would allow to the Chief Coroner and the deputy chief coroners exactly the same indemnity as coroners have at present—I hope that the Minister will see the appropriateness of coroners having it—in which case it would be necessary, for certain acts carried out by the Chief Coroner and deputy chief coroners, that they should also be indemnified. I hope that the Government will listen to these necessary protections for those carrying out an important part of the administration of justice.