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CORONER REFORM
The Home Office on 11 March 2004 published a position paper on reforming the coroner system, making a kind of synthesis of the Luce and Shipman Reports.
Much of the paper is put in cautious or as yet undecided terms, and many important decisions have yet to be taken by ministers. Nonetheless, it is possible to see certain trends. As a whole, the coroner system is to be retained, but reformed, and the death certification system is to be completely overhauled.
As to the latter, there will in future be verification of the fact of all deaths, certification of the cause of death by a doctor, scrutiny of all such certificates by a medical examiner based in the coroner's office, and referral to the coroner of all deaths which cannot be certified or which are unnatural.
As to the former, the coroner would hold public inquests into most of the deaths referred to him or her. Juries would continue to be required in some cases. Narrative verdicts would be preferred to the current system of short-form "verdicts". However, instead of the 127 or so coroners today (mostly part-time) sitting in their own separate jurisdictions, each with a deputy and most with assistant deputies, there would be about 40-60 full-time coroners, all legally qualified, supported by (part-time) deputies, sitting in a single national jurisdiction, and presided over by a Chief Coroner. An advisory Coronial Council would be created, to harness relevant experience and expertise, whose members would be drawn from the various professional stakeholders involved, as well as lay organisations.
The new system is thus to consider more deaths (ie all deaths in England and Wales, not just those currently reported to coroners) but with differently organised resources, ie fewer coroners but new medical examiners working slongside them.
On the question of funding, the paper makes clear that there is to be no extra money available for the new system. This means that it is necessary to be clear exactly where the existing funding comes from, and, to the (overwhelming) extent that it does not come from central government already, "capture" that funding for the new system. (The Luce Report had estimated an increase of about 10% on existing funding for its version of the new system.)
The timescale for implementation of these reforms is unclear, as they depend in large part on the enactment of primary legislation, and the paper itself states that this depends on the Parliamentary timetable. However, the paper states that a White Paper and a Bill should be prepared within one year. In the past, coroner reform has not been seen as a priority, and next year (2005) may be a general election year.
The Coroners' Society of England and Wales has broadly welcomed the paper in a press statement, set out below:
"We welcome these truly radical and practical proposals. The Home Secretary has successfully grasped the nettle of combining the two systems. We applaud the aim to provide a unified, coherent system of death registration and investigation. They could thus provide one seamless, accessible service, very much as we had hoped and in part proposed. .We recognize an intelligent synthesis of the "Fundamental Review" and "Shipman Report" approaches.
Proposals we particularly welcome are:-
· The provisions for a family charter , attention to the needs of the bereaved at the centre of the process, making it easier for them to raise their concerns
· The introduction of an "in-house" Medical Examiner, separate from the judicial post of the coroner with a general monitoring function and public health links
· Recognition of vital role of the Coroner's Officer and plans for training and development.
· Plans to identify, develop and disseminate existing good practice and promote consistent service standards, including a Coronial Council and Inspectorate system. Upon some of these items we have already been able to make a start.
· A simpler and more accessible appeal process
· New plans to avoid unnecessary inquests where they reduplicate the work of other investigation agencies
· The initiative taken via "narrative" verdicts to avoid the current confrontational and legalistic forms of verdict, which provide a battleground but little benefit.
We do note with concern :-
· A threefold increase in the number of reported deaths to be handled: ( ALL deaths, approximately 600,000: currently 204,000 are reported)
· A threefold reduction (from 127 to "40 -60" ) in the number of Coroners.
Our workload is still increasing as a result of the Human Rights Act. Quite rightly the proposed system makes further demands on our workload and the style of its delivery. We cannot at present see how this will be rapidly and locally delivered with such a heavy cull of the existing establishments.
The basic framework is welcome, but to work it will have to be well resourced. There will also be a price to be paid in terms of increased bureaucracy. Better investigation of all death certificates by medical Examiner before application of his/her second signature will take time.
Meanwhile we, our Officers and staff will take forward such reforms as we can while addressing the needs of bereaved as sympathetically as the present systems and resources permit.
Victor Round
Hon.Sec.Coroners' Society of England & Wales"
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Last modified: Monday, 09-Aug-2004 08:53:12 BST by: Malcolm Bishop