Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff in the Somerset Coroners' Service have been remote working in each of the last 12 months.

The Coroner Statistics 2022: England and Wales, published on 11 May 2023, indicate that, for the Somerset coroner area in 2022, the average time from the report of a death to the coroner and the completion of an inquest was 31 weeks. This was an increase from 23 weeks in 2021.

In 2022, the average time for completion of an inquest in England and Wales as a whole was 30 weeks – a decrease from 31 weeks in 2021.

The Ministry of Justice does not have operational responsibility for coroner services, which are administered and funded by individual local authorities. Consequently, this department does not hold information on remote working by staff in the Somerset coroner service.

The Chief Coroner continues to work with individual coroner areas and their funding authorities and the police to ensure that services are effectively delivered. He is engaged with the relevant authority for the Somerset coroner area on service improvements.