Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on implementation of a 24 hour coroners system.

We want to make sure that grieving families receive the highest level of service when they are most in need, which is why we are determined that inquests are conducted quickly and consistently right across the country.

It is important that coroners are flexible and accessible in the service they provide. The Government will do everything it can to encourage all coroners to make an out of hours service available and also to direct a less-invasive post-mortem where this is suitable and desired by the family.

The Chief Coroner and I recently met senior figures from London local authorities and from the Metropolitan and City of London Police. We have secured their agreement to developing a pan-London out of hours coroner service which will share workloads and services and be in place as soon as possible after 31st March 2015.