Coroner Services (Charter)

Thursday 15th December 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Jonathan Djanogly)]

The Government are today publishing their response to the consultation on the charter for current coroner services.

The charter will help those who come into contact with coroner services in England and Wales by for the first time setting out the standards that bereaved family members and others can expect to receive. It also sets out what someone can do if they are unhappy with the level of service provided.

The charter forms an integral part of the Government’s plans for reform of the coroner system, and, alongside the appointment of a chief coroner and implementation of most of the provisions in part 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, will help to ensure much more consistent standards of service between coroner areas.

The charter consultation closed on 5 September 2011. A total of 135 responses were received from a range of stakeholders including coroners, local authorities, voluntary organisations, medical professionals and members of the public. Our response document summarises the views of respondents, and shows where we will subsequently make revisions to the charter.

Overall, there was support for the charter to be published, as proposed, alongside the Ministry of Justice’s current “Guide to Coroners and Inquests”. This combined document will ensure that people can easily access one document setting out first the processes in a coroner inquiry (the guide) and secondly the standards that can be expected throughout (the charter).

Hard copies of the final version of the combined guide and charter booklet will be printed and distributed to all coroner jurisdictions in early 2012. The guide and the charter will then be updated as and when changes to the coroner system are introduced in the future.

The response paper is available online, at

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/closed-with-response.htm.