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Armed Forces: Coroners' Inquests

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Bridget Prentice) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. My right honourable friend the Minister for the Armed Forces and I wish to make the following Statement to the House about the inquests of service personnel who have died overseas. Our sincere condolences go to the families of the 13 service personnel who have lost their lives in service of their country since the last Statement, and our thoughts and prayers remain with all the families whose loved ones have died on operations. Today, we are announcing the progress that has been made since the Written Ministerial Statement on 2 February 2009 (Official Report, col. 37WS), with information about the conduct of inquests by the Wiltshire and Swindon and other coroners. This Statement gives the position at 27 April. The tables which accompany this Statement again include information about those cases which involve a board of inquiry or a service inquiry. Progress with inquests At the time of the last Statement, we reported that 220 inquests had been held since June 2006: 206 into the overseas deaths of service personnel and 14 into the deaths of civilians in Iraq whose bodies were repatriated via RAF Brize Norton or RAF Lyneham. Since 27 January a further nine inquests have been held into the deaths of service personnel who died in operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. This makes a total of 230 inquests held since June 2006. Since operations commenced in 2001 there have been a total of 254 inquests into the deaths of service personnel who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, including four service personnel who died in the UK of their injuries. In two further cases, no formal inquest was held, but the deaths were taken into consideration during inquest proceedings for those who died in the same incident. We remain very grateful for the efforts of all the coroners involved in conducting these inquests and unswerving in our support of the independent coronial system. Our departments continue to work closely together, and with the coroners, to review the way in which the system is working and to look for opportunities, prior to the implementation of the coroners’ legislation which is currently before Parliament in the Coroners and Justice Bill, to make improvements for the benefit of the bereaved families. On 17 March the Government tabled amendments to the Coroners and Justice Bill, which will have the effect of enabling fatal accident inquiries to take place in Scotland into the deaths of service personnel killed on operations overseas. This reflects our commitment to support bereaved service families and will mean that families in Scotland will no longer, in most cases, have to travel to England for inquests. Open inquests Pre-31 March 2007 Fatalities The Statement in February reported that there was one remaining inquest to be held into a death where the body was repatriated via RAF Brize Norton prior to 31 March 2007, that into the death of Marine Wigley. That remains the position and the inquest will be heard for five days starting on 11 May. Post-1 April 2007 Fatalities Since October 2007, additional resources have been provided by the Government to ensure that a backlog of inquests will not build up in the Wiltshire and Swindon jurisdiction (since 1 April 2007 fatalities are repatriated via RAF Lyneham). The coroner transfers inquests for service personnel to a coroner closer to the bereaved family, where possible. David Masters retired as the Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner on 31 March but his successor, David Ridley, has appointed him as an assistant deputy coroner to ensure that his experience and expertise is retained. There are 71 inquests to be concluded into the deaths of service personnel who died in Iraq and Afghanistan whose bodies were repatriated after 1 April 2007 (33 involving deaths in the past six months). Of these, Mr Ridley has retained 38 inquests, whilst 33 inquests are being conducted by coroners closer to the next-of-kin. Inquest hearing dates have been set in 11 of these cases. Inquests into the deaths of service personnel who returned home injured There remain three inquests to be held of service personnel who returned home injured and subsequently died of their injuries. We shall continue to keep the House informed about progress with the remaining inquests. I have placed tables in the Library of the House which outline the status of all cases and date of death of each case. Copies are also available in the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.