Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the impact of Part 6, of Section 169, on medical examiners of the Health and Social Care Act 2022 on the time taken to complete the death certification process; and if he will take steps to reduce that time.

We have no current plans to make an assessment. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will have a duty to ensure that sufficient medical examiners are appointed in the healthcare system in England; funds and resources are made available to medical examiners to enable them to carry out their functions of scrutiny to identify and deter poor practice; and to ensure that performance is monitored. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s National Medical Examiner will issue guidance to medical examiners to ensure that their functions are undertaken in an effective and proportionate manner. In 2018 we set the objective to ensure that a reformed system for certifying non-coronial deaths improves the quality and accuracy of Medical Certificate of Cause of Deaths and provides adequate scrutiny to identify and deter criminal activity or poor practice. This should be achieved without imposing undue delays on the bereaved or undue burdens on medical practitioners and others involved in the process.