Recommendation 16

HM Government Acknowledged

The Committee noted that pathology services for coroners have been neglected over many years leading to serious problems and recommends that the Ministry of Justice should immediately review and increase pathologists’ fees to ensure an adequate supply of pathology services to coroner service. The Government is aware of the increasing challenges coroners face in identifying pathologists to perform post-mortem examinations in their coroner areas. Successive Chief Coroners have also expressed their concern about the shortage of pathologists to carry out post-mortem examinations, most recently the then Chief Coroner in his Annual Report to the Lord Chancellor for 2018/19 and 2020. The Government accepts that the fee paid to pathologists for carrying out routine post- mortems, which is set by the Ministry of Justice, has not been raised for some years but it does not accept that this is the only reason for the shortage of pathologists. Other reasons include the fact that pathology is no longer part of a medical student’s standard training, and post-mortem work no longer seems to be an attractive sub specialism. There is a national as well as international shortage of consultant pathologists. There is no evidence to suggest that raising the fee would of itself address the problem. We are therefore not accepting this recommendation, but the Ministry of Justice will continue to keep the issue under consideration. We will also continue to engage with the Chief Coroner’s office and other government departments to find a sustainable solution to address this issue.