Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the role of the volunteers service in the coroner's court system; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funding to that service to help ensure uniformity of access.

The Government recognises the good work done by volunteers who support bereaved families and others who attend coroners’ courts. However, extending support services - such as the Coroners Courts Support Service - to cover all 85 coroner areas remains subject to affordability.

The Ministry of Justice collects annual data on coroners’ inquests which is then used to inform policy making. An annual statistical bulletin is published on the GOV.UK website at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coroners-statistics-2020. Coroner statistics for 2021 will be published on 12 May 2022.