Broken government pledge leaves family of war dead waiting years for inquests

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This is despite pledges to cut the "unacceptable' amount of time that bereaved families of British soldiers killed in action have to wait for inquests into the deaths of their loved ones.

In January this year inquests into the deaths of 17 soldiers who had been killed over a year earlier were still outstanding.

In October the former constitutional affairs minister - now Labour deputy leader - Harriet Harman announced measures to speed up the process and said the backlog of inquest cases would be "sorted out".

New cases in April were sent to Wiltshire after a backlog built up in Oxfordshire, which was given more funding to address the situation.

The BBC reported that Wiltshire's coroner, its county council and its chief constable have all requested more funds but that they have been told to wait until the autumn to put forward their case at a meeting.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said the department would be meeting the Wiltshire coroner's representatives later this month, but confirmed there had so far been no extra funding provided.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We are regularly reviewing the progress of military inquests, but note that Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Masters is transferring as many inquests as he can to other coroners.

"The original backlog of inquests was unacceptable and with the extra resources we provided to the Oxfordshire coroner to reduce it, progress has been made. Ministers make quarterly statements to Parliament on progress made to review the backlog.

"Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw has offered to meet David Masters. We are also arranging a meeting between our officials and Mr Masters for later this month.

"All casualties suffered by the UK armed forces are a source of profound regret."

The bodies of more than 30 service personnel have been flown to Wiltshire so far.

More than 220 UK service personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since operations began in both countries.