Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, government Amendments 2, 4, 12 and 31 bring us back to the important issue of investigations into the deaths of service personnel who die serving their country. We tabled the amendments following the House’s agreement to a similar amendment tabled on Report by the noble Baroness, Lady Fookes. That amendment provided for a deputy chief coroner to be responsible for monitoring investigations into the deaths of service personnel, and for the training of coroners who conduct these investigations. The amendments reflect—and I suggest enhance—the noble Baroness’s amendment tabled on Report. Whereas the noble Baroness’s amendment would have made a deputy chief coroner responsible for service personnel investigations, the amendments confer those duties instead on the Chief Coroner. This refinement to the noble Baroness’s amendment will further strengthen the provision while retaining the spirit and motivation of her proposal. In the reformed coroner system it will be the Chief Coroner who is responsible for setting standards and training coroners to investigate particular types of deaths. It is therefore fitting for the Chief Coroner to have responsibility for training coroners who carry out service personnel investigations, and for monitoring those investigations. I hope that the noble Baroness and the House will be content with the amendment. I beg to move.