A campaign group is claiming that the Home Secretary will have "extraordinary powers" to order that inquests should be held in secret under new proposals put forward by the Government in the Counter-Terrorism Bill.

Media Lawyer is reporting that Part Six of the Bill, unveiled last week, gives the Home Secretary "unprecedented powers" to intervene to impose secrecy in cases in which he or she considers that issues affecting national security or state intelligence are involved.

It said that campaign group Inquest claims Clause 64 of the Bill would give the Home Secretary "extraordinary powers" to issue certificates at his or her discretion to hold "secret" inquests, without juries, in any case in which material will be revealed that he or she believes not to be in the public interest.

Campaigners fear that such cases could even include deaths in custody.

Inquest has written to junior Justice Ministry minister Bridget Prentice, who is responsible for coroners, to express its extreme concern that the measure was introduced without any consultation, even though the organisation and members of its Lawyers Group were in regular and ongoing dialogue with ministers and officials.

Under the present legislation, and the coroners rules, an inquest must be held in public unless the coroner conducting it considers that it would be in the interests of national security to hold it in private.

Inquest co-director Helen Shaw said: "We have serious concerns about these far-reaching proposals which have been introduced without consultation and have wide-ranging consequences.

"The public will find it difficult to have confidence that these coroner-only inquests, with key evidence being suppressed, can investigate contentious deaths involving state agents independently."

In October last year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a speech on liberty, announced that a series of proposals which would have placed new restrictions on the media's freedom to report inquests were being dropped.

Among the proposals being abandoned, he said, were plans to allow coroners to make anonymity orders covering deceased people, for example in cases of suicide and child deaths.

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