Government Adopts NS Proposal on Coroners Charter

The Government has agreed to the NS proposal that the new Charter for the Coroner Service should make clear that bereaved family members, other ‘properly interested people’ and witnesses should be aware that the press may be present at the inquest, as almost all inquests are held in public. This will also have the status of statutory guidance in any revised Charter produced on implementation of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.  

The NS had suggested that the bereaved should be informed by the coroners service at the earliest possible opportunity that inquests are judicial proceedings which are open to the public and can be reported by the media. This would help to reduce the instances of distress of the bereaved who had not realised that the inquest or the evidence that they had given might be reported.

The Charter will set out uniform standards of service that bereaved family members, other properly interested persons and witnesses can expect to receive from coroners services across the country and that all coroners offices in England and Wales are aware of the standards that they should be meeting. It will also clarify what someone can do if they wish to complain about the level of service received or the personal conduct of a coroner. The Charter will be published in early 2012, alongside the new Guide to Coroners and Inquests – printed copies will go to all Coroners offices and the Charter will be live on the MoJ website.

The NS has also cited open justice as the basis for its opposition to the Government’s proposals in the Justice and Security Green Paper to extend ‘closed material procedures’ more generally to actions in the civil courts and tribunals, plus new measures for inquests, dealing with ministerially-deemed sensitive information.  This was  published in the wake of recent court rulings, most notably the Binyam Mohamed case relating to allegations of torture, where a media application led to the Court of Appeal ordering the disclosure of material which the Foreign Secretary had wanted to keep secret in view of UK/USA intelligence services relationships.

The Green Paper proposes changes to the law which would operate in favour of government presumptions of secrecy. As a result of ministerial decisions, under the proposals, hearings in more court and tribunal proceedings could take place in secret and access to government evidence, witnesses and judgements withheld, even to the other parties.

• Ken Clarke warned plan to curb open justice is flawed (Media Guardian)
• Justice and Security Green Paper