Third time lucky for the Coroners and Justice Bill?

Proposals to reform the coroners’ system have yet again featured in the Queen’s speech. However, this time the reforms will be introduced in the Coroners and Justice Bill – a wide-ranging bill spanning different areas of the justice system. The purpose of the Bill is to deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive justice and coroner service for victims, witnesses, bereaved families and the wider public. MPS frequently advises and represents doctors called to give evidence at inquests. It is with this experience that we believe that a complete overhaul of the coroners’ system is long overdue.

The limited information published so far suggests that the Bill will provide the following key changes to the coroners’ system:

• A new national coroner service, led by a new chief coroner, moving towards whole-time coroners working within flexible jurisdictions and to national minimum standards, with powers to commission non-invasive postmortems where appropriate, and complying with a charter of services for bereaved families.
• A new system of secondary certification of deaths that are not referred to the coroner, covering both burials and cremations.

We expect that the new Bill will encompass measures that were included in the draft Coroners and Death Certification Bill, such as a new group of medical examiners to independently scrutinise the causes of death given by doctors on death certificates. However as the Bill has not been published these details are still to be confirmed.

A look at MPS case files shows that, over a six-year period in the UK, MPS opened 1,883 cases relating to inquests – with a doubling of numbers requesting assistance with inquests over this time period. We suggest that this increase reflects the growing climate of anxiety amongst healthcare professionals about the potential consequences of an inquest.

Apprehension about being faced with the grief and anger of a deceased family is understandable, but there is also potential for complaints, litigation, referral to the GMC, and adverse media coverage. A Bill on coroner reform was due to have been included in the legislative programme twice in the last two years but was abandoned each time, despite numerous parliamentary reports calling for reform of the system.

The coroners’ system is ripe for reform and we hope that it will finally be allocated parliamentary time in 2009. We keenly await the publication of the Bill and look forward to engaging with parliamentarians on these important issues.