 Coroners
The Home Office has responsibility for matters relating to coroners.
The Home Office's main responsibilities are:
- to develop coroners policy and practice;
- to service meetings with experienced coroners and a wider consultative committee consisting of representatives from relevant Departments and agencies (the Coroner Service Consultative Committee);
- to facilitate training for coroners; and
- to deal with public correspondence about coroners and their inquests.
The Home Office also has statutory responsibilities for the appointment of coroners (London and metropolitan counties only); changes to the boundaries of coroners' districts; directions to coroners in respect of holding an inquest in certain circumstances; and the setting of certain fees and allowances. A newsletter is issued to coroners.
Current work, based on a study of the coroner service in 1996/97,aims to develop a more effective management of the service in conjunction with the local authorities (who are responsible for the appointment and pay of coroners), the Lord Chancellor's Department (the disciplinary authority) and the police (who usually provide support staff or coroners officers).
A report on the duties and responsibilities of coroners' officers has been produced. Ministers are interested in ensuring that coroners provide a high quality service to the public. To this end a Model Coroners' Charter has recently been produced.
Coroners' enquiries and inquests are conducted in accordance with the Coroners Act 1988 and the Coroners Rules 1984.
Following the Report of the Fundamental Review of Death Certification and Coroner Services and in response to recommendations made in the Third Report of the Shipman Inquiry, a Coroner Reform Programme has begun, please see the Coroner Reform page for more details.
Key documents
Some of the documents below are in PDF  format. To view them, you may first need to download a free copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader .
A leaflet has been produced to advise on procedure in the event of a sudden death:
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