Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Inquest
Inquest has made both its substantive briefing
on the Coroners and Justice Bill and its stand alone briefing
on "secret" inquests (clauses 11-13) available to the
Committee and indeed we are encouraged that the Committee has
sympathy with our views on many of the issues that arise in relation
to compatibility with ECHR. In relation to the issues outlined
by the committee in the call for submissions and the letter to
the Justice Secretary we make the follow additional comments.
CERTIFIED INQUESTS
In addition to our comments in our briefings
we have forwarded to the committee the directions of the Coroner
in the Terry Nicholas case, one of the cases cited by the government
as giving rise to clauses 11—13. The coroner clearly sets
out her view that the inquest into his death can go ahead and
be article 2 compliant within the constraints of the current legislative
framework. This means as far as we are aware there is only one
case, that of Azelle Rodney, on which the government is basing
these highly contentious proposals. We reiterate our view that
these clauses should be withdrawn and a simple amendment made
to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
SCOPE OF
CORONERS' INVESTIGATIONS
Inquest does not believe that the proposed scope
of coroners' investigations is adequate to meet the positive obligations
of the State to protect lives. Despite recent legal changes inquests
still cannot fully explore all the issues of procedure and policy
that may have contributed to a death. For example in 2004 the
JCHR were aware of the death of 16 year old Joseph Scholes in
Stoke Heath young offender institution and supported the call
for a public inquiry. Like the coroner who presided over the inquest,
they recognised the limitations of the inquest remit which meant
important issues of the sentencing and allocation of Joseph, a
vulnerable 16 year old boy were not able to be considered. Most
recently INQUEST is working on the self inflicted deaths in prison
of 15 year old Liam McManus found hanging in Lancaster Farms Young
Offender Institution after being sentenced to one month 14 days
and a young woman Alison Colk found hanging in Styal prison, sentenced
to 28 days. In order to fully scrutinise and understand the issues
that contributed to these deaths and establish whether there was
a breach of article 2 and how to protect lives in the future it
is crucial that there is a detailed examination of sentencing
policy and allocation. Within the proposed new system there is
no ability to do this.
Deaths will continue to be considered in isolation
from one another without an overview of the systemic factors which
may have contributed to a pattern of similar deaths. The findings
of previous inquests or inquiries into deaths involving similar
factors or deaths within the same institution may also not be
considered.
PUBLIC FUNDING
FOR LEGAL
REPRESENTATION FOR
BEREAVED FAMILIES
Inquest's view is that there needs to be a new
approach to the funding of families legal representation. The
current means tested legal aid system is unfair and potentially
prevents families from ensuring they can effectively participate
in coroners investigations. There should be automatic non means
tested funding available for families in all inquests that engage
article 2. The State is always represented and lawyers paid for
from unlimited public funds while families face complex, intrusive
and additionally distressing means testing.
In the public bill committee "The Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Bridget Prentice) said :
We estimate that about 800 inquests a year involve public authorities.
They cost an average of about £8,000 for legal aid, which
amounts to £6.4 million a year".
March 2009
| 
