The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Jonathan Djanogly)
My hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces and I wish to make the latest of our quarterly statements to the House giving details of the inquests of service personnel who have died overseas. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our service personnel who have served, or are now serving, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To the families of the service personnel who have given their lives for their country, in connection with the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would like to convey our sincere condolences and particularly to those families of the 12 service personnel who have died since our last statement in October. These families, and all the bereaved families who have lost loved ones during these operations, continue to be in our thoughts.
Today we are announcing the current status of inquests conducted by the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner, the Oxfordshire coroner, and other coroners in England and Wales. This statement gives the position at 24 January 2012.
To supplement this statement I have placed tables in the Libraries of both Houses. These tables outline the status of all current cases and show the date of death in each case. They also include information about cases where a board of inquiry or a service inquiry has been held.
Our Departments will continue to work closely together to improve our processes and continue the Government’s support for coroners who are conducting inquests into operational deaths. With that in mind, we wish to express further thanks to all the coroners, and their staff, for their dedicated work as well as to all those who provide support and information, both throughout the inquest process and afterwards.
Since October 2007 both Departments have provided additional resources to ensure that there is no backlog of operational inquests. These resources have been provided to the Wiltshire and Swindon coroner, Mr David Ridley, as prior to 1 September 2011 repatriation of service personnel took place within his district at RAF Lyneham. We are also providing additional resources to the Oxfordshire coroner, Mr Nicholas Gardiner, as repatriation ceremonies for those killed on operations overseas now take place within his district at RAF Brize Norton.
Current status of inquests
Since the last statement there have been 17 inquests into the deaths of service personnel on operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A total of 515 inquests have been held into the deaths of service personnel who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 19 service personnel who died in the UK of their injuries. In three further cases, no formal inquest was held. In two of these cases the deaths were taken into consideration during inquest proceedings for those who died in the same incident. In the third case, where the serviceman died of his injuries in Scotland, it was decided not to hold a fatal accident inquiry.
Open inquests
Fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan
There are currently 57 open inquests to be concluded into the deaths of service personnel who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Twenty-one of these involve deaths in the last six months.
The Wiltshire and Swindon coroner has retained 14 of the remaining open inquests, the Oxfordshire coroner has retained six of the open inquests, and 29 are being conducted by coroners closer to the next-of-kin. Hearing dates have been set in 11 cases.
There is one remaining open inquest into deaths from operations in Iraq.
Inquests into the deaths of service personnel who returned home injured
Eight inquests remain to be held of service personnel who returned home injured and subsequently died of their injuries. Two hearing dates have been set. The remaining six cases will be listed for hearing when the continuing investigations are completed.
We shall continue to inform the House of progress with the remaining inquests.