Inquests: solicitors say changes to system are not enough

All coroners will have to be legally qualified, and work full-time with national training, inspection and monitoring to improve the service given to the bereaved, the government announced last week.


Constitutional affairs minister Harriett Harman QC branded the current system fragmented, unaccountable and archaic, when she unveiled plans for a national framework for coroners, with a chief coroner.


Ms Harman said coroners, who preside over 200,000 cases each year, will have power to investigate a death even where a certificate has been issued and will be given greater powers to obtain evidence.


Bereaved relatives will have more rights, including the ability to request a second opinion on death certificates and to challenge coroners' rulings on how an inquest is run.


The reforms received a sceptical response from practitioners. Ann Alexander, senior partner at Altrincham firm Alexander Harris, who represented more than 200 families of relatives of Harold Shipman's victims, said they did not go far enough. She was concerned that Ms Harman had not touched on key issues, such as legal representation, improved death certification procedures, 'and, most importantly, the publication of proper information for families of the bereaved'.


Solicitor Louise Christian, chairwoman of pressure group Inquest, said: 'Many of the proposals are good, but there is one big horror - the proposal to restrict the use of juries, which would be a very retrograde step.'


David Halpern, Hereford's part-time coroner and senior partner at Lambe Corner, said the system needed updating and standardising. He accepted that relatives should be better served, but questioned how the proposals would achieve this.


Draft legislation will be published in April.