Clause 31
Coroners and Justice Bill
8:45 pm
Bridget Prentice (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Lewisham East, Labour)
The Bill currently provides that the chief coroner may carry out an investigation, instead of the relevant local coroner, or may make a request to the Lord Chief Justice for a serving judge to carry out an investigation. I envisage that that power would be used sparingly, but it allows the chief coroner, or a senior judge, to take responsibility for specific investigations, for example when there are legal complexities. This group of amendments extends the pool of persons eligible to conduct investigations in accordance with the provisions in schedule 8, and that includes retired High Court judges, retired Court of Appeal judges and retired senior coroners, much in line with what the hon. Member for Daventry was asking for in an earlier debate.