Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the (a) practical and (b) emotional support provided to (i) families and (ii) other witnesses attending the Coroners’ Courts.

The Government is grateful for the important and valuable work that the Coroners Courts Support Service (CCSS) does in providing practical and emotional support for bereaved families in many coroner areas across England and Wales. This work is key to the Government’s objective of ensuring that the bereaved are placed at the heart of the inquest process.

We are keen to see support services in every coroner’s court in England and Wales, subject to affordability. Following the Justice Committee’s recommendation in the 2021 report on its Inquiry into the Coroner Service, the Ministry of Justice is taking forward an engagement plan, including with the CCSS, to better understand the support services currently available in coroners’ courts in England and Wales, and what is needed going forward. We aim to complete this assessment in as soon as practicable.

We are also undertaking a factual update of our Guide to Coroner Services for Bereaved People, which will be followed by a more fundamental review to take account of forthcoming changes which will impact on coroner services, including implementation of the statutory Medical Examiner scheme and the Independent Public Advocate. The review will also look at ways of improving the accessibility of the Guide, so that bereaved people are better able to engage with it at what is inevitably a very difficult time in their lives.