Coroner Reforms

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities and Family Justice (Caroline Dinenage)]

The Government are committed to making sure bereaved people are at the very heart of the coroner system.

I am therefore pleased to announce the launch of a post-implementation review of the coroner reforms in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (‘the 2009 Act’), which will include a call for evidence into people’s experiences of coroner services.

Before the last Government implemented the 2009 Act’s coroner reforms, in July 2013, it undertook to review their impact after they had been in place for 18 months.

Since assuming responsibility for coroner policy and legislation following the general election I have considered the appropriateness of this Government carrying out such a review.

The reforms have now been in place for just over two years and I believe that this is a good period of time against which to assess the impact of the reforms and seek views on people’s experiences of the system

The Government are keen to hear the views of:

The providers of local coroner services—coroners, their officers and other staff, and the local authorities that fund coroner services;

those who have used coroner services under the 2009 Act—bereaved people and the voluntary organisations, including faith groups, who support them;

others who interact with coroner services—such as pathologists, other doctors and registrars; and

others who have been affected by and have experiences of coroner services under the 2009 Act.

We will seek views for eight weeks, starting today. After that we will consider the responses we have received and publish a post-implementation review report. Any proposed action arising from the findings of the review will be announced at that time.

The review is available at: https://consult.justice.gov.uk.

[HCWS243]