Mentions:
1: Maria Caulfield (Con - Lewes) will help deter criminal activity, improve poor practice and ensure the right deaths are referred to coroners - Speech Link
Written Evidence Apr. 24 2024
Inquiry: NHS leadership, performance and patient safetyFound: A systematic review published in 2023 identified 17 studies using coroners’ PFDs, which found that
Written Evidence Apr. 17 2024
Inquiry: The Coroner Service: follow-upFound: This submission aims to situate coroners in a wider context both in terms of their work today, and
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many inquests have been recorded in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes Coroner Statistics each May covering the preceding calendar year. The information is collated from data provided by each of the 81 coroner areas across England and Wales.
Data from the published statistics is set out in the table below, across all coroner areas for each of the last five years, on the total number of inquests recorded, the average length of inquests, the total number of inquests open for more than two years, and the total number of inquests suspended and not resumed. The requested information for inquests adjourned for longer than two years in England, London and Barnet only is not collated as part of the annual statistics. Table CSV included in the annual publication provides further information for adjourned inquests by coroner area.
The published statistics also record the average length of an inquest in individual coroner areas and Barnet is part of the North London Coroner area with Brent, Harrow, Haringey and Enfield. Table 13 collates this information by region.
The Ministry of Justice does not have a target for the length of time an inquest should take. Coroners are independent judicial office holders and the way they manage their caseload is a matter for them. Following the Covid-19 pandemic the Chief Coroner issued guidance to coroners on how their services can best recover and tackle backlogs that accumulated in some areas.
Regulation 26 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013 require coroners to notify the Chief Coroner of any investigation which has not been completed or discontinued within a year of the death being reported to them, and provide reasons for this. They must also notify the Chief Coroner when such investigations are completed or discontinued.
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Number of inquests recorded | 36,273 | 32,762 | 31,991 | 29,969 | 29,094 |
Average length of inquest | 30 weeks | 31 weeks | 27 weeks | 27 weeks | 26 weeks |
Inquests open for more than 2 years at year end | 1,760 | 1,366 | 1,104 | 601 | 472 |
Inquests suspended due to criminal proceedings and not resumed | 748 | 729 | 599 | 849 | 834 |
Written Evidence Mar. 05 2024
Inquiry: The Coroner Service: follow-upFound: In London, there is wide disparity between coroners’ preferences.
Apr. 25 2024
Source Page: Chief Coroner’s annual report 2023Found: are course directors, I delivered residential ‘continuation’ training for all coroners and coroners
Apr. 25 2024
Source Page: Chief Coroner’s annual report 2023Found: are course directors, I delivered residential ‘continuation’ training for all coroners and coroners
Apr. 25 2024
Source Page: Chief Coroner’s annual report 2023Found: are course directors, I delivered residential ‘continuation’ training for all coroners and coroners
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reports to prevent other deaths were issued by coroners in England and Wales in each of the five most recent years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Since 2022, the annual number of Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) reports issued by coroners in England and Wales has been collated in the Annual Coroner Statistics which are published each May and cover the preceding calendar year. 440 reports were issued in 2021, and 403 were issued in 2022.
The number of PFD reports issued in each year prior to 2021 is not held centrally. However, coroners have a statutory duty to copy all PFD reports to the Chief Coroner, who publishes them on the Judiciary website unless, exceptionally, he decides not to do so in order to protect an individual’s privacy and/or to protect the public from harm. The number of PFD reports published by the Chief Coroner was 384 in 2018; 595 in 2019; and 301 in 2020.
Written Evidence Jan. 24 2024
Inquiry: The Coroner Service: follow-upFound: There are aspects of the interactions that funeral directors have with the coroners’ system that have