Clause 32
Coroners and Justice Bill
9:00 pm
Jennifer Willott (Cardiff Central, Liberal Democrat)
The new clause is closely related to the point raised a few minutes ago by the hon. Member for Stafford as it concerns the transparency, openness and accountability of the system on which the Committee took a lot of evidence as it was raised by a number of witnesses. We looked particularly at how to ensure that the system identifies patterns, not just in situations such as Hillsborough, where there are many people in a similar area, but in cases across the UK in which similar verdicts are recorded by different coroners. That will help us to tackle broader medical or health and safety issues as they arise. The new clause would place a duty on the chief coroner to produce an annual report that would be provided to the Lord Chancellor, who would be obliged to publish it and lay it before the House of Commons, so that it would be openly available and there would be opportunities for much broader oversight of any issues arising.
As the hon. Member for Stafford said, there are many examples around the world of coroners’ systems that operate effectively and openly, in which lessons are learned in a much more transparent fashion than has been the case up to now in the UK. He gave as examples the systems in New South Wales and Ontario, Canada, where verdicts and recommendations are made publicly available and are widely disseminated so that lessons can be learned and patterns identified. The new clause attempts to do something similar here.
I am prepared to accept that the Minister might not like the wording of the new clause, but I would be grateful if she gave her views on what could be done to ensure that we identify broader patterns as they occur across the UK, pick up on recommendations that coroners have made in different coronial areas, and ensure that greater transparency and accountability is built into the system.