Coroners face legal demands in inquest on system's image

All coroners will have to be experienced solicitors or barristers under a package of sweeping reforms announced last week to modernise the coroners' system.

Under the new plans, legal aid will be available for families at inquests who face public authorities or corporate bodies.

The legal qualification criterion is aimed at tightening the system.

Currently, 25% of coroners are doctors.

Other reforms in the Home Office report include more safeguards and accountability in the process of certifying deaths.

A doctor acting as a statutory medical assessor would help coroners' investigations and maintain a list of approved 'second doctors' who would have to certify the cause of death independently.

Local authorities will no longer appoint coroners, who will now come under a national service overseen by a chief coroner and council.

Bereaved relatives will now have stronger rights throughout the process.

Families will also be allowed to request a review of coroners' decisions.

There will be fewer public inquests, except for deaths in custody or those requiring a judicial examination of evidence, and some complex cases will be presided over by a circuit or even a High Court judge.

The Coroners Society welcomed the report, but warned of the dangers of a lack of funding.

Victor Round, coroner for Worcestershire and secretary of the society's review committee, said: 'We are concerned that without serious commitment to finding proper resources and implementing reforms soon, the changes for which members of the public and the coroners who serve them have been calling will simply not happen.'

Law Society President Carolyn Kirby gave a cautious welcome, but expressed concern over the interpretation of legal aid criteria.

'We strongly disagree with the statement in the report that current criteria for getting legal aid is broadly satisfactory,' she said.

'We believe that more cases, such as deaths in custody, should meet the funding criteria as being of significant wider public interest.'

Victoria MacCallum