Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Helen Grant Excerpts

Thursday 4th July 2013 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mrs Helen Grant)]

Today I have published the Government’s response to the consultation on our plans for implementation of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, including new coroner rules and regulations and new statutory guidance for bereaved families. While we received a range of views on the consultation, there was broad consensus on most of the key issues.

We have made some changes to the detail of our original proposals to reflect the comments we received and I will lay in Parliament today the final versions of the rules and regulations that will underpin our reforms to the coroner system. We intend to bring the changes into force on 25 July.

The aims of the 2009 Act are to put the needs of bereaved people at the heart of the coroner system; for coroner services to be locally delivered but within a new framework of national standards; and to enable a more efficient system of investigations and inquests. I am confident that our reforms will enable these aims to be met.

The first Chief Coroner of England and Wales, His Honour Judge Peter Thornton QC, with whom we have been working very closely in developing our proposals, will now oversee implementation of the reforms.

Copies of the consultation response paper have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, in the Vote Office and in the Printed Paper Office. The document is also available online, at: http://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/coroner-reforms.