Plans for the most far reaching reforms to the system of coroners’ courts in England and Wales for more than 80 years were unveiled by the government this week.
A new national service of full time, legally qualified coroners will be set up under a chief coroner, replacing the current archaic and fragmented system, which dates back to the 12th century. Doctors will no longer be able to serve as coroners, unless they have also qualified as solicitors or barristers.
A national training system for coroners and an inspectorate to audit their work will be created. The new style coroners will receive medical training.
The constitutional affairs minister, Harriet Harman, promised a draft bill for April or May, and the new system is expected to be operating by 2008. The draft bill will be scrutinised by the parliamentary select committee on constitutional affairs and, unusually, by families with recent involvement in coroners’ inquests—possibly including relatives of victims of the serial killer GP Harold Shipman.
Shipman was found guilty of murdering 14 of his patients in January 2000, but an inquiry by the appeal court judge Janet Smith concluded that he had probably killed at least 200 more. As a result of the Shipman case, bereaved relatives will be given a right to ask the coroner for a second opinion if they have any suspicions about the cause of death.
Bereaved relatives will be allowed a bigger role in coroners’ investigations and will have access to a complaints system. They will be able to appeal to the chief coroner against coroners’ rulings on how the investigation and inquest should be run, instead of having to wait until the end of the inquest and ask the High Court to reopen it.
Ms Harman said coroners would have powers to investigate a death, even where a death certificate had already been issued, and access to dedicated medical advice. They will have more powers to obtain evidence, including powers to enter premises and search and seize property.
The reforms build on proposals from an independent review of the coroners’ service in 2003, chaired by a former head of social care policy at the Department of Health, Tom Luce, and proposals from the Shipman inquiry. Ms Harman said the government was not persuaded of the need to report all deaths in England and Wales to the coroner, as Dame Janet recommended, but would look further at the issue.
“We need a system that can identify and investigate suspicious deaths yet allows families to proceed quickly with funeral arrangements where there is no cause for concern,” she said. “We are not sure that the proposals to have all deaths referred to coroners achieves this, but we will be looking further at this and are not ruling out the possibility of further reform.”