Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many coroner's offices have been subject to mergers in each year since 2010.

Since 2010 there have been 23 mergers of coroner areas in England and Wales, reducing the overall number from 116 to 92 coroner areas.

It is the Chief Coroner’s aim, which the Government supports, to move, over time, to around 75 coroner areas, each having between 3,000 and 5,000 deaths reported annually. The aimn of this change is to promote consistency and generate efficiencies for local authorities, which fund coroner services.

The Ministry of Justice does not have operational responsibility for the coroner services and does not hold information about the number of coroner’s offices that have closed.