§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what operation and when it was carried out on patient C, the subject of an inquest in north Wales; who was the coroner at the inquest; what factors underlay the decisions(a) not to name the patient and (b) not to publish the date of the inquest; and what evidence was given by public officials during the proceedings on the case. [11927]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansThe question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.
Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Peter Bottomley, dated 31 January 1996:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department has asked me to reply to the above Question about the recent legal proceedings concerning Patient C. In doing so I have consulted with the Home Office and Welsh Office on the issues that are within their jurisdiction.Patient C entered hospital on 26 February 1991 for elective extraction of wisdom teeth. I understand that the death was reported to the coroner for East Clwyd, Mr. Jones, and that a date for the inquest has yet to be fixed. Patient C was the subject of an application to the Family Division of the High Court for a declaration that life-sustaining treatment and medical support be discontinued. In that application, Mr. Justice Johnson made an order under section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 that Patient C and other connected individuals should not be named. Two further applications came before Sir Stephen Brown, the President of the Family Division. So far as the evidence given by public officials is concerned, I have arranged for copies of the three judgments in this matter to be made available in the library of the House.