KRW WRITES TO PRESIDING CORONER NOT TO BE SWAYED BY ADVICE FROM ENGLAND ON INQUESTS AND INVESTIGATING PPE SHORTAGES

Following concerns expressed about recent Guidance from the Chief Coroner for England and Wales regarding inquests and the investigation of systemic failures in the provision of PPE equipment resulting in deaths from Covid-19 of key frontline workers, KRW LAW LLP has today written to the Presiding Coroner for Northern Ireland, Her Honour Mrs Justice Keegan, advising her not to issue similar Guidance in this jurisdiction.

 

We argue that a bereaved family in Northern Ireland who have lost a loved one employed as a frontline key worker from Covid-19, where the failure to provide PPE may have contribute to that death, will legitimately ask whether failures in the provision of safety equipment played a part in that death.

 

In the absence of a statutory public inquiry into PPE supply in Northern Ireland, the inquest is a mechanism of scrutiny which is key to learning lessons and holding people to account in order to prevent future deaths.

 

page1image26306496