It will be a great relief to all the families of the 11 men who tragically lost their lives at that fateful day in Shoreham back in August 2015 that a decision has at last been taken on whether charges are to be brought. Many of us fail to understand why it has taken 31 months to make that decision and more than a year on since the Air accident Investigation board produced its very comprehensive report about the details of the accident. However without pre-judging the outcome of the trial that report was not able to apportion blame and the many questions that it left unanswered can hopefully now be addressed in the proceedings of the court case. I know that will bring some comfort to the families who have waited patiently and whose grief at the delay in taking these decisions has only been compounded.
The further concern is that it could be many months before the court case starts and that now makes it even more likely that the already delayed coroner’s inquest will be pushed back even further into 2019. That inquest is a vital part of the whole process of getting to the bottom of the truth about what actually happened and a necessary part of bringing some form of closure for the families of the 11 men who died, and it is essential that the families are given all the support they need to help the through the further difficult months ahead. One factor that would certainly help is agreement that Exceptional Cases Legal Aid funding will now be available to support the families at the Inquest and now a decision has been made on charges I will be helping again with further approaches to bring that about.