§ 58. Mr. EDWARDSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that two men were fatally injured at the Oakdale Colliery, Monmouthshire, on Friday, 16th October; that on Monday 19th, the inquest was held at Blackwood, Monmouthshire; that, as the Coroners Act lays down that the coroner who conducts the inquest must not go to the home to view the body if the deceased was resident in another coroner's district, the body of the man who resided at Oakdale was taken from his home to Blackwood, a distance of from two to three miles, to the place where the inquest was held, after which it was taken back again; and will he take steps to have the law altered so as to prevent this sort of thing happening again?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir Herbert Samuel)I have made inquiry into the matters to which the hon. Member refers and fully sympathise with the purpose which he has in view. The course which was taken was, as the hon. Member recognises, in accordance with the requirements of the law. It would be better, whenever more than one death unhappily occurs as the result of a single mining accident, if arrangements were made, as is frequently done, to intimate the fact to the coroner, so that the statutory requirement of viewing the bodies may be fulfilled before any are removed outside his jurisdiction. I am communicating with the hon. Member in order to explain the circumstances more fully than is possible within the limits of a parliamentary reply.