Counter-Terrorism Bill

moved Amendment No. 126A: 126A: After Clause 80, insert the following new Clause— ““Inquests: intercept evidence (1) In section 18(7) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (c. 23), after paragraph (c) insert— ““(d) a disclosure to a coroner or to a person appointed as counsel to an inquest or to members of a jury or to any properly interested person where— (i) the coroner holding the inquest is a judge of the High Court; and (ii) the coroner has ordered the disclosure to be made to the coroner alone or (as the case may be) to the coroner and the person appointed as counsel to the inquest or to members of a jury or to any properly interested person.”” (2) In that section, after subsection (8A) insert— ““(8B) A coroner shall not order a disclosure under subsection (7)(d) except where the coroner is satisfied that the exceptional circumstances of the case make the disclosure essential to enable the matters that are required to be ascertained by the inquest to be ascertained.”” (3) In that section, after subsection (11) insert— ““(11A) References in this section to a coroner apply only where the coroner is a judge of the High Court.”” (4) This section has effect in relation to inquests that have begun, but have not been concluded, before the day on which it comes into force as well as to inquests beginning on or after that day.”” The noble Baroness said: When the question of inquests was first raised as an issue that would be included in the Bill, the Government made much of the fact that one inquest was unable to take place unless certain provisions were made to hold it in secret. In relation to the inquest into the Rodney death, which opened on 5 May 2005, a number of briefings suggested that there was a lot of difficulty in making in any way public some of the intercept evidence that was received. There is the matter of natural justice and of society’s confidence that inquests into such deaths should be held within a reasonable time afterwards—and 2005 is a long time ago. The inquest was held up and the family have been unable to have the benefit of hearing its results. The inquest is still outstanding. For that reason, I tabled the amendment to suggest that if the difficulty was that coroners were unable to deal with such inquests, because the original Act, RIPA, which allowed intercept evidence to be dealt with in a way that covered inquests and complied with Article 2 of the ECHR, the answer might be to have High Court judges sitting in coronial courts to see evidence that concerns interceptions. The point of my amendment is to allow some debate as to whether that would be a way of resolving the difficult matter of the Rodney case. Since tabling the amendment, it has transpired that a second parallel case is now in court: the case of Terry Nicholas who was shot by police in west London on 15 May 2007 in a preplanned Trident operation. So there are now two cases with worrying parallels: both concerned prior police intelligence and both resulted in someone being shot dead. The worry is that in both cases the inquests have been held up unduly. A pre-inquest hearing on the second case is due to take place tomorrow. When the IPCC looked at the second case, it said, on 28 November 2007, that in its opinion the inquest could go ahead without any unnecessary delay. Nearly a year has passed, so there has obviously been undue delay. As more inquests are held up, one questions the Government’s intention. Do they think that my amendment would be a solution? I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, for putting her name to my amendment. She is not able to be here today, but she feels that serious questions need to be answered. Would this amendment be an answer so that these inquests can be held, or will the families be left in limbo indefinitely? There are much wider questions. The rest of us need answers about such operations. I do not suggest that anything untoward took place—we simply do not know, which is the point of having inquests. I beg to move.