Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I rise to comment briefly on the amendment and to say how grateful we all are to the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, for introducing it. This point was not discussed at any previous stage of the Bill either here or in another place, and she highlights a real concern on which we would very much welcome hearing the Government’s views. Certainly, we will make up our minds on this matter once we have heard what the Government have to say about it. However, I ask the noble Lord to confirm that there have been a number of cases where what was first thought to be suicide was some time later alleged to be murder. In the time between such a case being thought to be suicide and someone later thinking that it was a murder, some vital evidence was either lost or destroyed. That made it far harder to proceed with the investigation into what became a murder inquiry and, in some cases, may have led to a conviction but without all the appropriate evidence necessarily being available. Therefore, we want to hear what the Government think about this and, as I said, we are grateful to the noble and learned Baroness for raising it, although it is a pity that this has come up so late in the Bill.