Member

I wish to refer to amendment 20 in my name and that of colleagues. In Northern Ireland we have this bizarre situation, which we saw in one of the inquests. If during the course of a hearing in England the coroner suspects the possibility of criminal behaviour, he stops the inquest and sends the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will make its decision, and what happens thereafter with the inquest is determined by the outcome of that. But in Northern Ireland, the inquest process continues right through. Even though the coroner might think there is something that the PPS should look at, no, it carries on. We get to the point—we have had this—where the coroner issues his opinions, commenting on all the legal and liability issues, including the criminal liability, totally colouring the eventual dealing with that in the proper way through the PPS process.