Public Bodies Bill [Lords] (Programme) (No. 2)

The hon. Gentleman is tempting me down a path on which I should probably not embark, but I repeat that, in my view, the emphasis has been on cost. I agree with the Bill that there should be a burning of the quangos. Having spent 10 years as a local councillor, I know how overburdened the country has become, and I would support any measure that would save money. There is a debate to be had about costs, and I think that that is the debate we should be having, rather than a debate about whether the position exists at all. The statement made by the Lord Chancellor back in June failed to recognise that the chief coroner's office was a single senior judicial post with statutory powers. The Government's proposals will dismantle the office and transfer some, but not all—by any stretch of the imagination—of those powers to other judicial and political figures, which risks creating another fragmented structure where lines of accountability are opaque and clear leadership absent. The second issue that I want to raise is monitoring and training. That was one of the most important functions of the chief coroner under the Coroners and Justice Act, which gave him the job of both monitoring investigations of service deaths and ensuring that coroners who conducted such inquests were suitably trained.