The Ministry of Defence v Her Majesty's Coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon & Ors

The Administrative Court has power to amend an inquisition by substituting words in an appropriate case. That power may be exercised to give effect to a sensible and responsible compromise, provided the amended verdict reflects a determination properly open to the jury and preserves its essential finding.

The jurisdiction must be exercised with the greatest caution. The court must consider the interests of all parties and the wider public interest, including whether further argument would establish matters of substantial importance. Finality may properly be preferred where the essential public significance of the inquest has been preserved and further proceedings are unlikely to produce guidance of major future importance.

The Ministry of Defence applied for judicial review of a second inquest into the death of Ronald Maddison during a 1953 experiment at Porton Down involving Sarin. The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

The Ministry challenged two possible bases for that verdict: unlawful act manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter relating to the obtaining of consent. It did not challenge the basis concerning gross negligence in the conduct and planning of the experiment.

Before the substantive hearing, the Ministry and the deceased’s family proposed that the inquisition should be varied to specify gross negligence manslaughter relating to the conduct and planning of the experiment. The central issue was whether the court had power to make that order and whether doing so served the interests of justice and the wider public interest.

1. Order and jurisdiction. The court endorsed the agreed proposal and ordered that the inquisition be varied so that the verdict of unlawful killing expressly identified gross negligence manslaughter relating to the conduct and planning of the experiment. The court retained the essential verdict of unlawful killing.

2. The court had power to amend an inquisition by substituting words in an appropriate case. Following R (Longfield Care Homes Limited) v HM Coroner for Blackburn [2004] EWHC 2467 Admin and R (Mowlem Plc) v HM Deputy Coroner for Avon [2005] EWHC 1359 Admin, that power could be exercised where the proposed wording reflected a verdict properly open to the jury. The jurisdiction also extended to giving effect to a sensible and responsible compromise.

3. The court considered that there was a strongly arguable case that the consent issues should not have been left to the jury, although it had not heard full argument and therefore expressed no final view. By contrast, the Ministry conceded that a verdict of unlawful killing based on gross negligence manslaughter concerning the conduct and planning of the experiment was the only verdict reasonably open to the jury on that issue.

4. The power required the greatest caution. The court took account of the family’s agreement, the interests of the other parties and the wider public interest. The second inquest had already exposed the circumstances of the experiment and death, and retaining the unlawful-killing verdict preserved its essential public message. Further argument about consent under the law of 1953 was unlikely to establish points of major importance for the future.

5. The Chief Constable’s application for costs was refused. His role was subsidiary to that of the family, and his assistance to the court and protection of potential witnesses did not justify an award. He was ordered to bear his own costs. The Ministry agreed to pay the family’s costs and £300 towards the reasonable expenses of the Veterans Support Group. Earlier stay proceedings were discontinued with no order as to costs.

The judgment records that an earlier inquisition had been quashed and that the Divisional Court had ordered a second inquest in 2002. The present proceedings challenged the verdict returned at that second inquest.

The parties reached an agreed proposal before the substantive judicial review hearing. The Administrative Court endorsed the proposal and varied the inquisition.