5 Inquests
75. The inquest system in Northern Ireland has
long been the subject of controversy. A number of inquests into
contentious deaths occurring during the Troubles have been the
subject of significant cases before both the domestic courts and
the European Court of Human Rights. This has resulted in multiple
adjournments and suspensions of these inquests, the majority of
which remain to be heard. The inquest system in Northern Ireland
continues to face a severe backlog of cases and the senior coroner
in Northern Ireland recently criticised the PSNI at a preliminary
hearing in the Jordan.[149]
inquest for causing further delays.[150]
A detailed note on the legal background to these inquests is at
Annex A.
76. The PSNI told us that approximately 100 historic
inquests remain outstanding and that 48 of these deaths are classed
as contentions because they involved allegations of collusion
or involvement of the security forces in the death.[151]
The PSNI also stated that "these inquests have the potential
to be almost akin to public inquiries. They demand complete disclosure
which brings with it issues of intelligence and source handling
that will require PII consideration."[152]
Sir Hugh Orde commented that "a different approach has been
adopted by the coroner which is a very constructive approach which
may minimise the impact, but still it is an awful lot of work."[153]
77. The PSNI has estimated that its costs relating
to inquests for 2007-08 were £0.19 million, with projected
costs of around £4.5 million per annum for each of the subsequent
five years. Sir Hugh Orde explained that:
there will be a huge amount of backward looking reporting
in the context of day to day policing. There is a huge issue for
me around competence in policing just around that. In terms of
can it be delivered, it can be delivered but it will take time
and I will have to continue taking resources out of my current
budget because I have no extra money for any of this, except for
… HET which is ring-fenced.[154]
78. Witnesses pointed out the importance of conducting
the inquests and questioned whether the PSNI could itself help
make the process of information provision more efficient. CAJ
commented that,
As a society, what we have to do is to recognise
that people do need answers and that that is an important part
of us moving forward. If the coroner is now able to start the
inquests it will deal with some of the issues that families have
but inquests in Northern Ireland still have more limited powers
than ones in England and Wales.[155]
Jane Winter of BIRW suggested that,
… if the PSNI were to have a dedicated disclosure
unit which actually cooperates with the HET who have already done
a lot of this evidence collecting to find what they really have
got that they can disclose to the coroner and do it as promptly
as possible that would be a cost effective way of doing it. …
I think there may be ways of making it a more streamlined and
effective process that is not as expensive and difficult as it
might appear if you look at each case on its own.[156]
79. The Minister of State acknowledged that the
inquests would be controversial and would place significant further
demands on the PSNI, but stated that the Chief Constable would
be able to build on his prior experience in handling similar issues
and use that experience to work constructively with the coroner.[157]
80. There are outstanding legal
obligations which require the coroner to investigate a number
of deaths which occurred during the Troubles. The PSNI has a duty
to cooperate with the coroner and to provide him with whatever
information he requires to conduct those inquests. Since some
of that information might include intelligence which could identify
an informant, issues similar to those raised by the PSNI regarding
the disclosure of sensitive intelligence information to the statutory
inquiries might apply to the contentious inquests. The coroner
has a duty under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human
Rights to take steps to protect the lives of informants who could
be put at risk through disclosure of information which might identify
them. We recommend that an information management code of conduct
be drawn up by the coroner, after consultation with the appropriate
agencies, to protect sensitive information provided to him as
part of the inquest process, and that any public disclosure of
such information is made in accordance with the coroner's obligations
under ECHR Article 2.
81. We note that no specific
additional funding has been provided to the PSNI in recognition
of the extra workload arising as a result of the inquests and
that resources have instead been allocated from the main policing
budget. There are already significant and unique demands on the
PSNI and we are concerned that the volume of work required to
cooperate fully with the inquests may compromise the PSNI's ability
to direct adequate resources to other high priority areas of policing.
We recommend that the impact of the inquests on the PSNI's resources
and any consequential effect on current policing capacity is reviewed
during 2009 and the budget revised accordingly.
149 On 25 November 1992, Pearse Jordan, aged 22 while
unarmed, was shot three times in the back and killed in Belfast
by RUC officers. On 16 November 1993, the Director of Public Prosecutions
issued a direction of no prosecution on the basis of insufficient
evidence to warrant a prosecution. On 4 January 1995, the Coroner's
inquest into the death commenced. The inquest has been adjourned
on numerous occasions pending the outcome of various applications
for judicial review and a successful application to the European
Court of Human Rights. The inquest proceedings have recently re-commenced. Back
150
The Irish News, 21 May 2008, "Coroner criticises police over
delays in IRA man's inquest" Back
151
Ev 123 Back
152
Ev 123 Back
153
Q 534 Back
154
Q 38 Back
155
Q 167 Back
156
Q 420 Back
157
Q 572 Back
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