Military inquest venue to change
www.bbc.co.uk
20th March 2007
Inquests into the deaths of British service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be held at more locations, BBC News has learned. All UK war dead are currently returned to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, and their inquests heard in that county.

But from 1 April 2007 bodies will be returned to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, and hearings held either there, or where the dead person came from. Critics say the move is "foolhardy" and valuable expertise will be lost.

Backlog of cases
Last month armed forces minister Adam Ingram admitted the government should have acted sooner to clear a backlog of inquests into the deaths of soldiers killed in Iraq. In January figures revealed that inquests still had to be held into more than a third of those killed in the Iraq conflict and into 38 deaths of service personnel in Afghanistan.

The Oxfordshire coroner previously handled the majority of military deaths because their bodies were flown back to RAF Brize Norton. BBC Radio Four's PM programme has now learned that, starting next month, repatriation flights will be switched to Lyneham because of a two-year upgrading programme at Brize Norton.

Wiltshire's coroner will hold hearings into multiple deaths, and single deaths may be heard at the coroner's court closest to the deceased person's home or final resting place - in each case the Wiltshire coroner will decide how to proceed.

'Appalled'
Geraldine McCool, the solicitor who represented the family of Matty Hull, who was killed near Basra in March 2003 when a US pilot fired on his tank convoy, said she was "appalled" to learn of the decision. "We have at least got now established in Oxford a centre of excellence for army deaths - and to hear that that is going to change for no good reason whatsoever is very disturbing," she told the BBC.

She added that spreading the workload around the country looked "initially quite attractive" but was actually "foolhardy". Coroner Andrew Walker and two others were brought into Oxfordshire last May to clear a backlog of 85 cases of dead service personnel awaiting hearings.

Funding 'needed'
Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said the backlog of cases would not be cleared by "moving the pieces about" and needed more funding. He said: "There's a lot of hardship and a lot of heartache that's being endured by service families here, and the government needs to address this a little more thoroughly than they've been willing to do up 'til now."

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) said that no new resources had been allocated to Wiltshire, but this was under review. A spokesman said Oxfordshire had done a "fantastic" job, but that relatives of service personnel had found travelling long distances difficult. He added: "We are confident that any coroner can build up the same level of expertise on military inquests as Mr Walker and his colleagues did."