Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I understand and support the desire of the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes, to ensure that there is adequate expertise to carry out military inquests in the reformed coroner system. I have listened to her arguments carefully today, as did my noble friend Lord Bach in Committee and, prior to that, at Second Reading. Amendment 44 airs this important issue again by proposing once more to make a deputy chief coroner responsible for overseeing military inquests and for providing specialist training to coroners who undertake them. However, we remain convinced that no specialist military coroner is necessary. I can reassure the noble Baroness and service families that the Bill will ensure that every military inquest can be carried out with the expertise it requires and deserves. It may be helpful if I confirm how this will happen. Before I do so, however, it is important to stress that we are talking about an entirely new coroner system, with training for coroners and a Chief Coroner who will require and ensure that standards are available to meet the needs of each inquest. First, Clause 33 will ensure that, for the first time, all coroners are trained and receive refresher training throughout their careers in the specialist skills they will need for service investigations and other types of specialist investigations. The Chief Coroner himself or herself will be responsible for this training and not just his or her deputy. Secondly, in addition to training, the Chief Coroner will issue guidance and set standards that coroners must meet for every type of death. The draft charter for the bereaved states that this will include standards in relation to deaths on active service. Although the charter is still a draft and will remain so until after the Chief Coroner is in post, I have no reason to believe that this provision will change. I understand that the Oxfordshire deputy assistant coroner has compiled extremely useful guidance on military inquests. I would not be surprised if future guidance drew on it. Thirdly, all new coroners will be expected to operate to consistently high standards across the country. Many of the inquests that they conduct already raise equally complex issues in other settings. Fourthly, the Chief Coroner would be able under Clause 3 to direct that a particularly complex investigation be conducted by a coroner whom he or she knows has had previous successful experience in such a case or, under Schedule 9, to nominate a judge, former judge or former coroner with the skills and experience that are needed. Fifthly, I anticipate that, in practice, it is likely that many investigations into service deaths will still take place in the Oxfordshire or Wiltshire and Swindon jurisdictions. The current policy is, and will remain under the Bill, that those coroners will retain jurisdiction for those cases where there has been more than one death in the same incident. I should stress that in all cases where an investigation may be transferred from one coroner to another the families’ views will be taken into account. We have been listening to service families. For instance, during the summer Recess, the Defence Minister Bill Rammell MP and officials attended the Royal British Legion and War Widows Association Armed Forces family event. Among the 30 bereaved families present was overwhelming support for inquests to be held locally to the family wherever possible—although it was acknowledged that other families’ views may differ. I remain confident that the Bill provides for all coroners to be skilled to tackle all investigations which come before them. There will be the responsibility for the oversight of, and training for, service personnel inquests that the noble Baroness seeks. As I have said, this will be the role of the Chief Coroner. My noble friend Lord Bach and I would be very happy to meet the noble Baroness between now and Third Reading. I would hope to be able at such a meeting to go through the detail and persuade her that the retention of skill and expertise and the training of coroners are assured through the responsibilities of the Chief Coroner. I hope that in the light of my explanation the noble Baroness will agree to withdraw her amendment.