Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords who have spoken. Under Clause 32(4)(b), the Chief Coroner’s annual report to the Lord Chancellor must contain a summary of coroners’ reports to prevent deaths, and responses to them. Amendment 46 would require the Chief Coroner’s annual report to contain an analysis of coroners’ reports to prevent future deaths and responses to those, as well as an analysis of jury findings. I said in Committee in response to amendments tabled by other noble Lords, and I now repeat, that we are confident that the amendments are unnecessary. Regarding an analysis of jury findings, that is because the Chief Coroner’s report will inevitably contain details of findings in different coroner areas, on all such findings and not just the small minority of inquests—which we discussed the other day—where juries are summoned. This will inevitably be necessary for the Chief Coroner to assess how these are similar or vary across the country. Regarding an analysis of reports to prevent deaths, Clause 32(4)(b) already provides for the Chief Coroner to summarise the year’s reports to prevent deaths and the responses to them when putting together his or her annual report to the Lord Chancellor. I hope that noble Lords are content that in doing so for the annual report and more generally to assess differences in standards between coroners, the Chief Coroner will in any case analyse the raw data he or she receives from coroners. Amendment 48 requires the Lord Chancellor to take any action he thinks appropriate in response to the Chief Coroner’s annual report. I reassure noble Lords that this is also unnecessary because any reasonable Lord Chancellor would do this as a matter of course without being told to do so in legislation. Our tradition of Lord Chancellors leads us to believe that all future Lord Chancellors will be reasonable. I hope that explanation, together with our Amendment 42, reassures noble Lords that the Bill already addresses their concerns about reports to prevent deaths and the Chief Coroner’s annual report. To summarise, we are strengthening reports to prevent future deaths and accountability more generally by: first, putting a greater duty on coroners to issue reports to prevent deaths; secondly, ensuring that the reports are responded to; thirdly, giving the reports prominence in the Chief Coroner’s annual report; and, lastly, by providing for the Lord Chancellor to support the Chief Coroner’s work by publishing the annual report and raising any concerns he has about how the coroner system is operating. On that basis, I hope that the noble Lord will not move his amendments.