Written question asked by Patrick Mercer (Conservative) on Monday, 2 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 4 June 2008. It was answered by Bridget Prentice (Labour) on Tuesday, 10 June 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Coroners: Armed Forces

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy to include in future quarterly ministerial statements on coroners' inquests relating to military personnel (a) whether a Board of Inquiry convened for each case, (b) the report date of each Board of Inquiry, (c) cause of death, (d) critical findings from completed inquests and (e) steps taken in response.

Answer: The Minister for the Armed Forces and I are considering whether future written ministerial statements should include Board of Inquiry information, and will write to the hon. Member to give our response. We will place a copy of our letter in the Libraries of the Houses. Under rule 43 of the Coroners Rules 1983 a coroner may make a report at the end of an inquest to a person or organisation where the coroner considers that action should be taken to prevent future deaths. The Ministry of Defence takes notice of all critical findings made by coroners and takes appropriate action. I am, however, proposing to amend rule 43 with effect from July to improve the system for disseminating coroners' reports and recommendations. For the first time organisations including Government Departments will be required to send a written response to the coroner detailing what action they propose to take. In turn, the coroner will send a copy of both the report and response to me, and I will provide a regular summary of action taken to Parliament. It may not be appropriate to include details of the cause of death given the sensitive and personal nature of this information.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 477 c223W; 208721
Session: 2007-08
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP2008-2046
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Armed forces Coroners
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk