Professor Ray Murphy:

I would say so. We are talking about agents of the State, and the State has an obligation under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights to ensure there is a proper investigation. Therefore, it would be incumbent on the senior agents of the State to take that particular action. I stress, again, that it would be better if this were a statutory obligation, enshrined in the Bill in the first instance, and the means and capacity were given to the agency or the coroner service to conduct the investigations.