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Public Interest Immunity (PII) works very well in the majority of inquests. However, in a very small number of cases sensitive information has been relevant to inquest proceedings. If a PII application is successful, that information is excluded from proceedings, and the coroner or jury cannot take it into account when reaching their verdict. For example, in the inquests into the 7 July 2005 bombings the coroner approved an application for PII. This meant that relevant information could not be put before the inquests by the Security Service, and it could not be taken into account. This did not prevent the coroner reaching verdicts, but other cases may not be able to proceed as successfully. In extreme cases, an inquest might not be able to proceed at all if it cannot take account of centrally relevant sensitive information the disclosure of which would damage the public interest. |