Coroners and Justice Bill — Remove the power of the Lord Chancellor to suspend a coroner's investigation and inquest and replace it with an "inquiry" — rejected — 9 Nov 2009 at 18:33

The majority No voters rejected an amendment^[1] to the Coroners and Justice Bill. The amendment would have removed a provision in the bill^[2] enabling the Lord Chancellor to suspend a coroner's investigation and inquest and replace it with an "inquiry". The Lord Chancellor is a government minister - currently Jack Straw. However, the amendment was defeated.

Due to a procedural farce Minister Jack Straw, the Lord Chancellor proposed amendment (a) in lieu of Lords amendments 1, 2 and 216^[3] but then went on to vote against it. The standing orders of the House of Commons and the procedural motion passed to determine the timetable for handling the bill meant that the opposition were unable to table the motion.

It was later claimed that this slim majority of only eight votes was in-fact slimmer than it appeared due to a number of Labour MPs voted the wrong way by mistake^[4]. Denis MacShane has said he felt he voted the wrong way on this vote^[5].

The main provisions of the Coroners and Justice Bill were to^[6]:

• Allow secret inquests although the Lord Chief Justice can veto requests for private inquests and decide who the judge is
• Prevent criminals from profiting from publications about their crimes
• Allow courts to grant anonymity to vulnerable or intimidated witnesses as long as this still ensured a fair trial

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• [1] Jack Straw MP, 9 November 2009, House of Commons
• [2] Bill as brought from the Commons 26.03.09, See printed page 115 (PDF page 126). (Direct link to Schedules (HTML))
• [3] Amendment sheet
• [4] Andrew Dismore, 12 November 2009, House of Commons
• [5] Denis MacShane, 12 November 2009, House of Commons
• [6] Wikipedia entry, Retrieved on 2010-02-07

Debate in Parliament | Source |