asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to require coroners to release bodies of air crash victims as soon as possible.

I have no evidence that there is any need for legislation on this matter.

Let us suppose that one of us had been a victim of the Edinburgh-London Vanguard disaster—and it might easily have been so: would not our relatives have wished to have been spared the additional agony of having to wait many days before making funeral arrangements?

I have no doubt that Her Majesty's coroners, who are independent judicial officers over whom I have no control, bear those considerations fully in mind.