Coroners and Justice Bill

Your Lordships will know of the very considerable disquiet shown over the fact that the Government refuse to provide funding for inquests. It is a matter of very considerable concern when outside interests are represented by counsel and solicitors at those inquests. For example, the military will be represented by the Ministry of Defence counsel and solicitors in a military inquest while, there will be representation for factory owners if there is a fatal accident in a factory, and so on. With legal aid in Part 6, an amendment is proposed in Clause 133 of this Bill to the Access to Justice Act 1999. The amendment that I propose would leave out subsection (2) of the clause. Section 6 of the 1999 Act allows the Lord Chancellor to make a direction to require funding of cases that would not otherwise be funded in the circumstances specified in the direction. That is a provision that has been used and is used for funding legal representation of inquests of a military kind. Subsection (2) of this clause seeks to amend the current provision to provide that that may apply to, ""one or more areas or localities"," or specified courts or tribunals, or funding only for, ""specified classes of person"," or, ""persons selected … by reference to specified criteria; or … on a sampling basis"." I want to know what that means. This is a probing amendment to find out what impact the amendment may have on the funding of legal aid for inquests. Representation of the bereaved relatives at inquests is not given automatic funding; there is some funding when the Lord Chancellor gives a direction under Section 6, as presently drafted. That direction will give exceptional funding for certain inquests. We are concerned that this amendment, which is supported by Liberty, could allow, for example, only inquests held in London or only those involving the death of military personnel or British citizens. Given that the stated aim of the Bill is to standardise inquests and reform the system to deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive service to the public, we wonder why Clause 133 would allow such distinctions to be made. Given the importance of inquests in establishing the cause of death in a person and for there to be seen to be a full and public inquiry, as required by Article 2 on the right to life in the European Convention on Human Rights, we hope that the Government will more fully explain this amendment—what its purpose is and what the likely application in practice will be. I beg to move.