Justice Committee ~ Report on Coroners

On 27 May 2021, the House of Commons Justice Committee published a report on Coroners - The Coroner Service - 72 pages pdf. 

Quite a lot to read but, at first glance, one comment stood out for me -

 "The Ministry of Justice's work with other departments has not yet resulted in any funding for legal representation for bereaved people at inquests."

The committee is of the view that - " ... it is unfair that public funding is available for bereaved people to be legally represented at inquests only in exceptional cases and subject to a means test. This is the case even at inquests that involve many public bodies each of which are legally represented at public expense. Non-means tested legal aid should be automatically available at the most complex inquests such as those following public disasters. In all inquests where public bodies are legally represented bereaved people should be entitled to public funded legal representation."

It is high time that the government acted to properly and adequately rectify this unjust situation.