Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I also offer my support to my noble friend. As always, she has made a strong case for the idea that there should be a deputy chief coroner with particular responsibility for the oversight of military inquests and for the specialist training of all coroners who undertake military inquests. She certainly has our support for this. It has been noted that a great deal of expertise in dealing with military inquests has been built up in certain coronial areas, sadly because the coroners of Wiltshire and Oxfordshire have had to deal with so many such inquests just because of where they are in relation to our airbases. The expertise that has been developed is formidable, but it is obviously somewhat ad hoc depending on which airbase in this country the deceased is returned to. I therefore find very attractive the suggestion of my noble friend that there should be some formalisation of that expertise so that a designated person has responsibility for co-ordinating training across all coronial areas and can oversee military expertise. I do not doubt that the Minister appreciates the sensitivity and, sadly, the topical importance of this issue. The amendment is important and deserves support and I hope that the Minister will offer a sympathetic response to my noble friend—and certainly more than a few leaves from the olive branch. If he cannot offer even that, I hope he will offer at least a chance of further talks between now and Third Reading to see whether we can meet the suggestions of my noble friend.