Clause 4
11:45 am
Henry Bellingham (Shadow Minister, Justice; North West Norfolk, Conservative)
Clause 4 is fairly straightforward, because it relates to the discontinuation of an investigation when the cause of death is revealed by a post-mortem. It would be helpful if the Minister could elaborate a bit on the clause, and perhaps give us some examples that we can have a look at.
Perhaps it is my lack of in-depth reading of the clause, but I am not 100 per cent. clear about whether there will be an appeal procedure in this particular case. The family may well feel unhappy about the outcome and that, despite what has come out of a post-mortem, questions still need to be asked and lessons learned for the future. They may be very keen to still have a full inquest. I do not see anything in the clause that gives immediate rise to the opportunity for an appeal, if the family feel strongly about it. Of course, they could write to the chief coroner, who could use their powers in other parts of the Bill, but would it not be easier to cover it as part of this clause?