Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan told a preliminary hearing in the High Court yesterday that she would not allow “checking and filtering” of documents to slow down the inquest.

She said she “couldn’t understand why information could not be provided sooner” by the MoD, and said it needed to be in an “intelligible format”, whereas much of the information forthcoming was “not acceptable”.

Mrs Justice Keegan told families that the inquest would not open on Monday 10 September as originally planned, but she would set out a clear timeframe on that day.

She also reassured relatives that she would lay down a strict case management process to prevent the case drifting over disclosure issues.