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Coroners and Justice Bill

First, I should declare an interest: I am a former barrister. We have had a well informed and constructive debate, and we have covered a lot of subjects. That is unsurprising, however, as this Bill has clearly been cobbled together and covers many different subjects under one heading. As the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) pointed out, it covers 28 different topics. I fear that the Bill will lack direction and focus, and I think it would have been much better if the Government had come up with four or five separate Bills. On coroners, it is bad enough for our constituents to lose a loved one in a violent incident or accident, but all too often the resulting inquest is a thoroughly traumatic and bewildering experience. Reform is, therefore, long overdue. I noted that the Coroners' Society said that:"““If the coroner service is neglected, then society also neglects the bereaved.””" I think it was Edmund Burke who said:"““The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.””" I am indebted to Victims' Voice for that quote, which is highly pertinent to the Hillsborough families, whom the right hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth) referred to so movingly. As I have said, the coroner service is long overdue for reform. The Shipman inquiry under Dame Janet Smith and the excellent Luce review both took place almost five years ago. They were followed by the Government's draft proposals in 2004. Reform is better late than never, however. A great deal in part 1 of the Bill is to be welcomed. I agree with the comments of the hon. Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble), who made a well-researched speech, and I congratulate her on the work she has done on behalf of bereaved service families. I welcome the creation of the posts of chief coroner and deputy chief coroner. We welcome the new appeals system, too, and the powers to transfer investigations of deaths to another coroner. That is highly relevant to military inquests, and I was very impressed by what the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith) had to say on that subject. I have always found it strange that inquests involving the deaths of fallen servicemen and women could not be transferred to the district of the bereaved families, although I take on board the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) that it is important to recognise the expertise that exists in certain areas—he referred to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire. There needs to be more flexibility, however, and the Bill allows for that. We welcome the new charter for the bereaved, but I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch (James Brokenshire) and the hon. Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney), who both said that, in future, it is important for there to be far better co-ordination between the different agencies. The people putting together that charter should look carefully at the suggestions made by the hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Singh) and at the points that he made about the use of MRI scans. Conservative Members have always been in favour of local delivery by local coroners, but within a national framework that provides effective guidance. Of course, there will be cost implications for the Government's proposal, and the points made and questions posed by the hon. Member for Stafford and the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed need to be examined carefully. The Jean Charles de Menezes inquest alone cost more than £1 million. There must be a very strong case for central Government providing funds for court accommodation, and at a time when the private finance initiative is coming under a great deal of pressure, I hope that the Minister will look carefully at that suggestion. We also welcome the new procedures in clause 2, which allow for the appointment of medical examiners who will oversee the independent scrutiny and confirmation of medical certificates of the causes of death. That was recommended in the Shipman inquiry report and it is long overdue. However, the Coroners' Society points out that both the Shipman report and the Luce report recommended the integration of the coroner and death registration services, but that has been ignored in the Bill. I hope that the Minister will take a close look at that issue and at the points made by the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Dr. Taylor), who is highly respected—careful note should be taken of his expertise and insight. Obviously, the medical examiners need to be truly independent, as a number of hon. and right hon. Members have said. On recommendations by coroners, paragraph 6 to schedule 4 gives coroners the power to make a report to the person or organisation whom they believe may have the power to take the necessary action to prevent future deaths—that was covered by the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs. Moon) in a moving speech containing a number of well-informed remarks about suicide victims based on the tragic constituency experience that she went through. Such a person or organisation must then give the coroner a written response. The explanatory notes state:"““Further provision may be made in rules enabling reports…to be published.””" That is not good enough. Surely one of the key roles of the coronial service is to improve public safety by ensuring that obvious mistakes, omissions and bad practices are not repeated. We must take on board the suggestions and comments made by the hon. Members for Bridgend and for Stafford. Surely schedule 4 does not go far enough, because no mechanism is in place to ensure that the recommendations are properly recorded and implemented—we should look at this carefully in Committee. If one examines the part of the Bill dealing with coroners, one finds that it is about snakes and ladders; the Government have put in place some good ladders and we praise them for that, but there is a nasty snake that may come crashing down in clause 11. That clause, which many right hon. and hon. Members have discussed, provides for the Secretary of State to issue a certificate that allows inquests to be held without a jury. That provision will gravely limit transparency and increase Executive control over the inquests process. The measure was first introduced in the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Bill, but it was withdrawn, and I greatly regret its reappearance. I say that because the grounds for removing the jury are very broad indeed—if anything, they are broader now than they were in that original Bill, because the Coroners and Justice Bill provides for its removal for reasons"““otherwise in order to prevent real harm to the public interest.””" That is a catch-all phrase, as was pointed out by the hon. Member for Cambridge, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) and the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Llwyd). He is a former deputy coroner and we should listen to him very carefully. Others to make that point included the hon. Members for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood and for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), and my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Cox). They all pointed out that the Bill will undermine public confidence in the inquest system. It was right, for example, that the inquest on the death of Jean Charles de Menezes was held in public, but under these proposals it would almost certainly have been held in private. I am worried that the number of inquests heard without juries would grow, and what was meant to be an occasional fall-back option could become the norm. That is why we need to strike that clause from the Bill when the time comes.