The Government has announced that it will support amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Bill to remove the provision empowering ministers to order inquests to be held in secret on grounds of national security.
The provision for inquests to be held in secret had attracted widespread opposition and has been touched upon by some readers in responding to an earlier post of mine on the Bill. The Government may have taken the step it has in anticipation that, if it did not do so, it would suffer another defeat on the Bill. Whatever the reason, the change is very welcome. The Home Office has indicated it plans to return to the issue in the Coroners’ Bill. If it does, I suspect the provision will be amended. At the very least, any order for a secret inquest should be by a judge and not by a minister. A minister may have a fundamental conflict of interest. Even if there is no such conflict in practice, perception is all and a minister making such an order is likely to attract criticism.
The decision of the Home Office, to my mind, further justifies the important work of the House.
Thank you… but why didn’t the Government just do it in the first place without wasting everyone’s time, not to mention raising blood pressures for those who were keeping track? What other provisions in the Bill are dangerous for all concerned that haven’t yet been neutralised?
Indeed indeed – one dreads to think what else they think they could ‘get away with’, if they didn’t have the ‘checks and balances’ of the Lords..
Guy: The main mischiefs in the Bill were those relating to 42-days detention and secret inquests. There do not appear to be any major problems in what remains. The Constitution Committee in the Lords has gone through it in some detail: I think most of our concerns are now met. I would echo your opening sentence.
What remains: post-charge questioning; ‘terrorism’ an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing; forfeiture of property; ban on foreign travel and requirement to notify when away from home; an offence for volunteers not to inform police of suspicions (there is already a general offence on this); offence of providing information about armed forces of a kind that would be useful to terrorists.
There was a good debate by the Lords on these last week.