'What about the victims?' - Inquest and Liberty hold parliamentary meeting on Government plans for secret inquests

Inquest and Liberty held a parliamentary meeting today on the secret inquest provisions of the Coroners and Justice Bill. Chaired by Frank Dobson MP, parliamentarians were addressed by Susan Alexander, bereaved mother of Azelle Rodney who was shot dead by the Metropolitan Police in 2005, Helen Shaw, Co-Director of Inquest and Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.

Politicians from across the political spectrum heard that despite last minute amendments, the Government’s proposals would gravely limit transparency and increase executive control over the inquest process and could exclude bereaved families, their legal representatives and the public at large from the investigation process. This could include inquests into highly contentious deaths such as deaths in custody or deaths of individuals where issues of the state’s broader conduct are raised for example an inquest into the death of a soldier killed in Iraq or the inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly.

Susan Alexander said:

"The secret inquest provisions in the Bill are not significantly different from the clauses that the Government withdrew last year from the Counter-Terrorism Bill, at least from my point of view. They could still prevent a jury and me from seeing key evidence and having it properly tested in Court.

The inquest into Azelle’s death will not undermine the work of the police in protecting the public from serious crime, but the public interest will be badly damaged if the truth of what happened is obscured and all the lessons of this case cannot be learned.”

Helen Shaw, Co-Director of Inquest said:

"INQUEST remains fundamentally opposed to these proposals. They amount to a fundamental attack on the independence and transparency of the coronial system in England and Wales; are fundamentally flawed; unsupported by evidence; disconnected from legal principles and have come about without any consultation with stakeholders. The proposals will completely undermine the stated aim of government to put bereaved families at the centre of the reformed inquest system and will damage public confidence in the Coroner Service as a whole."

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said:

“What happened to all that rhetoric about rebalancing justice in favour of victims? This flawed policy forgets that the only point of an inquest is providing answers for bereaved families and the wider public. It is perfectly possible to protect sensitive material within an open jury system. Everything else is just politics.”