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Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, Amendment 54 is in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford. Clause 42 describes interested persons who may be appointed by the coroner. The problem is that there are circumstances in which there is no interested person who is willing to represent the interests of the deceased person, but there may be persons or organisations that are prepared to address this requirement. The Minister may well say that Clause 42(2)(m), which refers to, ""any other person who the senior coroner thinks has a sufficient interest"," covers the question that we have identified in this amendment, which says that, ""a coroner may recognise as an interested person an organisation or person who would be otherwise recognised as an interested party for the purposes of judicial review proceedings"." It may indeed be covered. It is not that we would press that this matter should be clarified entirely in the Bill, but at this stage I do not think that the Government have given any undertaking that the matter would be clarified in regulations or that it would be identified to coroners that they could exercise their discretion in this way. We are moving this amendment to give the Government an opportunity to clarify whether it would be made clear to coroners in regulations that they had the discretion to appoint someone who was not, in the first instance, an interested party but who, as an individual or organisation, could properly be regarded as such for the purposes of this clause. I beg to move.