Clause 70
Coroners and Justice Bill
1:00 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, Justice; Harborough, Conservative)
I will withdraw my amendment, but I want to make some closing remarks. We all know what the House of Lords decided in the case of Davis, and it is fair to say that, if we follow the judgments from the first instance decision through to the House of Lords, no central reference was made to the coroners’ courts system. The decision concerned a double shooting that involved a defendant who had fled abroad and who was brought back to the United Kingdom and tried. The trial judge made an order that the House of Lords decided was outside the ambit of the common law, and that the common law could no longer be extended in the way in which the judge had sought.
The House of Lords said that Parliament should make up its mind how best to deal with the matter, and we dealt with it in an emergency sitting last July. At least on the evidence that we have received so far, that system has worked reasonably well, despite the many concerns that others who share my views about anonymity and I expressed at the time. However, nowhere were similar proceedings or procedures for coronial courts excluded, either expressly or by implication. Despite what the Minister has said, I disagree with her reasoning, but I shall not push the matter further. I will invite my noble Friends in another place to consider the matter at greater leisure than we have at the moment. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.