Coroners and Justice Bill

Amendment 13A 13A: Clause 6, page 4, line 14, at end insert— "( ) The senior coroner shall maintain a record of all deaths that were notified to him, but where an inquest was held, as a result of the decision to discontinue an investigation." This amendment has a typographical error in it that I should like to draw to the attention of the Committee. It should read: ""The senior coroner shall maintain a record of all deaths that were notified to him, but where no inquest was held"." At the moment the amendment states "an" inquest. The amendment simply seeks to make sure that decisions become consistent across the whole of the country. If a coroner is holding far fewer inquests into a certain type of death than another, that would be revealed. The amendment would ensure consistency of standards right across the country as the Chief Coroner would have access to a register that collates and compares different coronial areas. That is all I want to say in explanation of that amendment, because at the moment, although such a record might be held somewhere locally, there is no way that the person who will become the Chief Coroner will be able to access that. As far as I understand, it would need to be held in a consistent format.