How Changes Are Being Considered In The Coroners Court.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Nicola Fitzgerald LLB1 + crim

What is the Coroners court?

The Court dates back to the 11th century
A Coroners' inquest does not blame anyone
GPs deal with most natural deaths that occur
Pathologists carry out post-mortems if needed
A jury is very rarely used in the Coroners' Court

Coroners are judicial officers that are responsible for investigating violent, unnatural or sudden deaths where the cause of death is unknown. The Coroner's Court holds an inquest to determine how, when and where the individual died, and in some cases a coroner will head this court on their own.

Coroners are generally lawyers, and in some cases doctors, and they and their deputies hold investigations or inquests into the causes of death to determine whether further criminal investigation is necessary.

Reforming the coroner and death certification service CM6159.

The Home Secretary’s View (foreword).

The home secretary David Blunkett’s view of the current operation of the system is that the system does work well but the “existing coroner and death certification arrangements have a long history”.

He feels there is a need for change because:

Some practices underpinning the coroner system are outdated e.g. No access to a uniform IT system.
You are not required to attend training or be subject to appraisal.
The services funding arrangements are poor.
The practices do not deliver a cost-effective service varying on location.

David Blunkett outlined in his forward how vital the Harold Shipman case had been in highlighting the weakness in the death certification system and said; The inquiry’s remit was to investigate the criminal activities of an individual within the medical profession and how those crimes remained undetected for so long.

Much of the work done and the changes made to the system have been based on reports that have highlighted the loopholes in the system:

The Government commissioned independent fundamental review of coroner and death certification systems, chaired by Tom Luce (DOH).
The third report of the Shipman inquiry chaired by Dame Janet Smith, appeal court judge.

The new coronial system that is proposed must be:

Independent – no outside influence.
Professional – development including training to high standards.
Medically-skilled – qualified practitioners.
Modern – service to public ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Much of the work done and the changes made to the system have been based on reports that have highlighted the loopholes in the system:

The Government commissioned independent fundamental review of coroner and death certification systems, chaired by Tom Luce (DOH).
The third report of the Shipman inquiry chaired by Dame Janet Smith, appeal court judge.

The new coronial system that is proposed must be:

Independent – no outside influence.
Professional – development including training to high standards.
Medically-skilled – qualified practitioners.
Modern – service to public recognizing special needs.
Consistent – uniform service throughout UK + high standards.
Robust – be able to detect foul play, inspection and performance monitoring.

The Current system.

How does the current system work?

A medical certificate for cause of death is issued. This must be taken to the local registrar of births and deaths along with other information about the deceased.
If the death is referred onto a coroner and there is an inquest, the registration will not be complete/take place until there is a receipt of a coroner’s certificate outlining cause of death.
During a fatal illness the treating doctor is able to issue the medical certificate of cause of death. How ever if the cause of death is uncertain or un-natural, the case is referred to the coroner.
After these steps burial or cremation can be authorised. Burial can take place when the death is registered.
Cremation however needs a further step of more certification:

Application for to be completed by the executor arranging the cremation.
Issuing of a further, more detailed certificate of the cause of death.
Issue of another certificate by an independent doctor who has double checked the information from the first doctor.
Approved by a third doctor, the medical referee appointed for the crematorium where the cremation is to take place.

6. A fee is normally charged by the doctors who issue the cremation certificate. A fee is also payable to the medical referee.

7. Where the death has been referred to the coroner, a certificate to replace steps 2 and 3 may be issued for cremation. If there is an inquest the coroner will issue a burial order or a cremation certificate once there is no more investigation needed.

A coroner’s work relates to responsibilities of certain government departments some of which are; The home office (legislation), Local authorities (appoint coroners), Lord Chancellor (can discipline coroners) and the department of health (the NHS which is able to carry out post mortems, death certificates etc).

The key proposals for change.

Deal quickly and efficiently with the deaths, meeting the needs of bereaved and the public. In many cases in the past, dealing with the bodies of people has been a long lengthy process which has not been considerate of the bereaved.
Identify efficiently cases that need further investigation. Without long, lengthy time spans to wait, cases have to be identified efficiently to stop scenarios like the Harold Shipman recurring.
Maintain consistency though England, Wales and N. Ireland and have regional oversight of death trends. This would help the government notice trends in high death rates and find out if there is a reason for it, if so then further investigation can take place.
To have an advisory coronial council, direct links to public health and be judicially independent.
Ensure a system of monitoring and inspections to attain high standards. To ensure no shortcuts.

How does the Home office circular 46/1999 – coroner service: Model coroner’s charter fit in with the proposals?

The model coroner’s charter “is intended to promote the quality of the local coroner service, public access to that service and to improve public awareness”.

The charter outlines what is expected from the local coroners in accordance with the proposed changes to the system. The charter also gives guidelines of what to do in circumstances where things go wrong. Everything that has been discussed in the report (CM6159) has been included e.g.

Meeting the needs of the bereaved – The coroners and their staff will treat the bereaved and other members of the public courteously and sympathetically at all times”
Deal quickly and efficiently with deaths – The coroner will release the body of the deceased for the funeral at the earliest opportunity, normally within 3 days.

The charter has been designed to make the service more efficient and to take the pressure off the court. In all aspects of this charter, all coroners now have a great deal more to do, whether it be double checking work, efficiency or offering support, it is all needed to move forward in conjunction with the reformed service.

Appendix.

Search Strategies.

My preferred search engine to use was , which can search over 8,058,044,651 web pages.

The first report I needed to find was Reforming the coroner and death certification service CM6159 this is how I went about it.

Went to www.google.co.uk - UK not .com. this is so I could get pages and reports from the UK and not from other areas in the world.
Typed in Reforming the coroner and death certification service. Search.
There were far too many hits and many were not even relevant.
Went back to Google and refined the search: Reforming the coroner and death certification service CM6159.
More concentrated articles based around the home office website.

www.homeoffice.gov.uk

I then searched within this particular website and came up with an article: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/justice/legalprocess/coroners/coronerreform.html
From this opening page there was a link to a further page (http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm61/6159/6159.htm).
On this page there was a link to download a copy of the report in pdf.

Many of the other papers were all linked in with hyperlinks attaching the papers together. This is what I found when trying to find the Home office circular No 46/1999 – coroner service: model coroners’ charter. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs/hoc9946.html

As well as links to these papers I also found links for background reading on the 2nd and 3rd reports of the Shipman case.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/justice/legalprocess/coroners/index.html

Bibliography.