Clause 70
10:15 am
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, Justice; Harborough, Conservative)
Although this group of amendments looks quite large, they all have one purpose: to apply the witness anonymity orders regime, which is currently applicable under the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008 and which, if the Bill is enacted, will be folded through into criminal procedure in the Crown courts and magistrates courts, to coroners’ inquests. If witness anonymity procedures need to be applied in the Crown court—we saw this in the de Menezes case—surely they are sometimes likely to be needed in coroners’ inquests. The amendments are therefore designed to apply the procedure for applications in clause 70, which currently applies to criminal proceedings, to those touching on coroners’ inquests.