Recommendation 13

HM Government Acknowledged

Currently a coroner’s decision can be challenged by way of judicial review or in certain circumstances, through an application to the High Court, with the authority of or by the Attorney-General, to have an inquest conclusion quashed under section 13 of the Coroners Act 1988 (as amended) (the 1988 Act). The Government believes that these procedures provide effective and appropriate mechanisms for ensuring that inquests can be held whenever they are required, and that coroners’ decisions can be challenged. The Committee considered that the current arrangements for challenging coroners’ decisions were unwieldy and caused unacceptable delays, stress and often expense, for bereaved people. It recommended that the Ministry of Justice should introduce a system of appeals similar to that in Section 40 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 as originally enacted. Section 40 of the 2009 Act which was repealed, without ever having been commenced, by section 33 of the Public Bodies Act 2011, made provision for a detailed appeals route to the Chief Coroner, with onward appeal to the Court of Appeal, setting out numerous matters which could be appealed. We understand that there were concerns around the cost of maintaining such an appellate process as well as over whether the Chief Coroner and his office would be able to deal with a potentially high number of appeals on a wide range of decisions in addition to their other work. Nevertheless, the Government is, however, aware of stakeholders’ views and accepts that there is merit in considering the original Section 40 and whether there is a need for an additional mechanism to enable more decisions to be appealed. Any potential appeals mechanism would, however, need to be proportionate and neither make the system more litigious and adversarial nor overwhelm the Chief Coroner’s office. We are therefore not responding to the recommendation at this stage.