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A lot of ignorance of the law. Religion is not just a private matter. The state is required to make reasonable accommodation.

Massive amounts of confusion between the wait for crematoria / funeral director (religious Jews and Moslems don't burn their dead) and the wait for a coroner's signature. The former provides the context for significant waits in the latter - it doesn't really matter to most people in whose custody the body is kept.

It takes a coroner about 5 minutes to ascertain from reports that the death of an elderly patient in a hospice from cancer is not suspicious, then to sign the release of the body. That 5 minutes is no more at the expense of the next person then the coroner browsing Law Gazette for 5 minutes during work time.

The reality is likely that 80% of coroner's time is spent on 20% of the cases that merit it, and that this dispute concerns whether she or someone from her office needs to put aside 20 minutes every morning for the religious deceased within the 80% of cases that don't form the bulk of her work.

Where the coroner needs to examine the death in more detail it is fully accepted that a delay will be necessary.

Please remember that we are talking here about the state literally violating the habeas corpus of the deceased - the intrusion is very large, and requires significant justification beyond computer says no or administrative inconvenience.