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"A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'This was a tragic case and our thoughts are with the family of Molly Russell. While our recent review of inquests found that legal representation is not necessary for the vast majority of cases, we are making a number of changes to the system...' "

Except that's ever so slightly disingenuous isn't it? What the MOJ review found was that legal representation is not required *for the family* in the vast majority of cases.

It did consider whether anything could be done to reduce the number of inquests where public bodies have legal representation, but concluded that very little could be done to "delawyer" the process.

The report gave the example of Police or Prison Officers whose job may be at risk - they clearly need representation (at public expense). Of course the families of the deceased - who merely lost their husband/wife, son/daughter, mother/father - they don't require representation.

Whatever one may think about the need for lawyers at an inquest, the Government position of lawyers for us but not for you is unfair and cannot be honestly justified.

Here the position is obviously different, with large corporations who will undoubtedly be lawyered up to the hilt rather than public bodies. However, it is still odd to hear it argued that a case, which has been raised in parliament and has Ministers commenting on, does not have wider public significance.