More funds for Iraq war inquests

Inquests were held in Oxford until April

Extra funding has been agreed for one of 32 coroners holding inquests into the deaths of military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defence said it did not want a backlog of inquests to build up for Wiltshire coroner David Masters, although there was no current backlog.

An extra deputy coroner and coroner's officer will now be taken on.

A row had broken out after the Oxfordshire coroner was given extra funds to deal with his backlog.

Mr Masters told the BBC in September that he was confident that extra government money would mean no delays for military inquests in Wiltshire.

'Urgent need'

"With that funding, I don't intend to allow any backlog to build up," he said.

Until April, the Oxfordshire coroner handled deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan because the bodies were flown back to RAF Brize Norton in the county.

At the end of last year, Oxford had a backlog of more than 100 cases - to the distress of many relatives.

But from April, repatriation flights were switched to RAF Lyneham because of a two-year upgrade of facilities at Brize Norton, meaning that the inquests became the responsibility of the Wiltshire coroner.

A Royal British Legion spokesman said: "Last month, we identified the urgent need to address the distressing backlog of coroners' inquests, and this is a step in the right direction.

"Both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence should be congratulated on making additional resources available, but this is not before time."