Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to notify the appropriate coroner when the body of a deceased military person is repatriated to England or Wales from Scotland for burial or cremation at the wishes of the family.

The Ministry of Defence does not notify the coroner when a deceased military person is repatriated from Scotland to England or Wales. In these instances registering the death with the appropriate coroner would routinely be undertaken by the Funeral Home appointed by the family.

Once a coroner has been identified, the Defence Inquests Unit will write to the coroner (in its capacity as the Ministry of Defence's single point of contact to Coroners) to establish whether an inquest into the death of the deceased is likely to take place.