A Bill aimed at reforming the coroners’ system and the way inquests are conducted was formally introduced in Parliament yesterday for Royal Assent. Alongside the Bill, a new Charter for bereaved people who come into contact with the coroners’ system was also published.
Inquests are called by Coroners to investigate when someone has died unexpectedly and/or when the cause of death is not clear. They are also called if it is thought that death occurred as a result of fault on the part of a state body. Families of the person who has died often want to be involved with and attend the Inquest. The Charter sets out the service the families can expect to receive, for example what involvement they will have in the Coroner’s investigation and the inquest itself and what action they can take if the service is not delivered, i.e. complaining to the Chief Coroner.
Consultation
The Ministry of Justice has been consulting various interest groups on what issues the Charter ought to deal with since 2006. Leigh Day & Co were the only law firm (alongside the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) to respond to the final consultation which involved 84 respondents in total including coroners, medical professionals, local authorities, voluntary organisations and bereaved families themselves. Leigh Day & Co thought it was vital to have input because so many bereaved families do not have legal representation and are poorly advised as to the operation of the Coroner’s system and their right of participation at an Inquest. A number of the key recommendations made by Leigh Day & Co and others have been addressed and incorporated into the new Charter, which can be found here.
The Charter will hopefully be available to the public once the Bill is approved by parliament.
Inquests and national security
However, just as the government is trying to increase the public’s understanding of and involvment in inquests and the Coroner’s service by updating the Charter controversial plans, relating to inquests involving aspects of national security, were announced by Jack Straw.
These plans were previously dropped from counter terrorism laws last year, but it seems that the Justice Secretary is now seeking to revive his plans as part of the wider reform of the Coroner’s service.
Whilst the intention of the Bill and Charter is to make the Coroner’s service more open and accessible to bereaved families, Mr Straw’s plans will have the opposite effect. He wants cases involving national security to be heard by a specially selected coroner sitting without a jury . His plans will arguably exclude families from the investigation of the death of their loved ones, whilst the Charter is supposed to be making it easier for families to be involved if they wish. If Mr Straw’s plans are approved they are likely to have serious implications for the obligation, under the European convention on human rights, to provide an adequate and effective investigation when a person has been killed as a result of the use of force by a state body.
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