Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I wish to express my firm support for the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes, in what she has said. Recently, a number of inquests have been held in which the coroner has been critical and got into a controversy over military procedures, including the role and responsibilities of commanding officers. Unless coroners have some experience of conditions on the battlefield, I do not believe it makes sense for them to enter into such debates because they confuse the issue and probably make the situation worse for the families who are trying to find out what happened. Therefore I accept absolutely that a coroner who is to undertake a military inquest, particularly one that involves a possible battlefield situation, should be educated to understand precisely what the role and responsibilities of commanding officers and others on the battlefield are so that the judgment is made as impartially as possible.