Adams Amy: Coroners Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAdams Amy: Coroners Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 19 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1775. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for Courts):I move That the Coroners Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice and Electoral Committee to consider the bill. The Coroners Amendment Bill makes a number of changes to the Coroners Act 2006 to provide better services to families by improving the quality consistency and timeliness of the coronial system. The 2006 Act instituted a major reform of the coronial system and was a significant step forward. It established the Office of the Chief Coroner to provide leadership and coordination it moved to a smaller number of mostly full-time legally qualified coroners it ensured family members are notified at significant steps of the coronial process it introduced a specific regime for retention and release of body parts and body samples and it enhanced inquiry and inquest processes.In 2012 my colleague the Hon Chester Borrows the former Minister for Courts initiated a targeted review of the Coroners Act to look at how well the Act was working after 5 years. The review found that good progress had been made since the Act came into effect but that there was room for further improvement. Following on from that review the main changes in this bill include better focusing coroners’ recommendations; improving processes in the coronial system including giving the Chief Coroner more tools to manage the overall system; better defining the cases that need to be reported to the coroner or should have evidence heard at a public inquest; and making the restrictions on publicly reporting self-inflicted deaths clearer and better targeted to matters most likely to cause harm. Many of the changes in this bill are small but taken together they will help to speed up the coronial process to make things easier on grieving families.Coroners play an important role in helping to prevent deaths by investigating the cause and circumstances of certain deaths and making recommendations to help prevent similar deaths. There is public debate from time to time about the merits of coroners’ recommendations. For example there has been debate about whether the recommendations are workable and whether they would have prevented the particular death the coroner is investigating or about why the recommendations have not been implemented. The bill will require coroners’ recommendations to be specific to the case and the evidence before the coroner and also to be clear about how the recommendations will reduce the likelihood of future deaths in similar circumstances. This will make it easier for the public to understand how the recommendations relate to that death.The bill will also strengthen the requirement for coroners to consider who should be notified of the inquiry or inquest so that they have the opportunity to contribute to the evidence before the coroner. If the coroner proposes to direct any recommendations or comments at individuals or organisations they will be notified and given the opportunity to respond before those recommendations or comments are finalised. There has also been discussion on whether there should be a mandatory requirement for organisations to formally respond to the coroner about any recommendations directed at them. This is not proposed in the bill. Many organisations already respond voluntarily to the coroner and to compel all to do so in every case would place a considerable burden on them particularly for smaller agencies. Once a coroner has issued his or her findings that coroner’s role ends and so they are unable to formally deal with any response. Where organisations do however respond to coroners’ recommendations as often happens the responses will be made publicly available alongside the coroners’ recommendations.The Chief Coroner provides important leadership in the coronial system. The Coroners Act sets out a long list of functions of the Chief Coroner. The bill reprioritises the Chief Coroner’s functions to make it clear which functions have a higher priority gives the Chief Coroner more flexibility to manage coroners’ workloads and establishes a Deputy Chief Coroner position. The bill also encourages the use of practice notes to improve consistency between coroners and emphasises the importance of maintaining good relationships so that the coronial system works effectively. The bill will also allow the Chief Coroner to direct that no further investigation is needed if another authority has already investigated the death and has dealt with the matters a coroner is required to determine. Some aspects of the pathologist’s role are clarified such as the ability to answer questions from the family about the pathologist’s report. There are also some small improvements to the processes for notifying and returning human tissue samples to families. Other improvements will better protect the rights of people whose conduct may be called into question in an inquiry. It requires the coroner to notify them of their right to be represented at the inquest and cross-examine witnesses.Medical deaths can pose a particular difficulty in deciding whether a death should be reported and some of the terms used in the Act such as “operation” “procedure” and “treatment” can be broad and difficult to define. The bill will reduce uncertainty by requiring deaths to be reported only where the death would not have been expected before the operation procedure or treatment commenced. Coroners have adopted a process requiring all overseas deaths to be reported to the coroner if the body is brought back to New Zealand for burial or cremation; however many of these deaths are not suspicious and have been adequately investigated by an overseas authority. The bill makes it clear that such deaths may be reported if the body is in New Zealand and someone has concerns about how the overseas authority responded to the death but that there is no requirement to report the death to the coroner. If a member of the New Zealand Defence Force is killed by enemy action while on operational service overseas a coronial investigation into the death could raise some concerns about the kinds of questions the coroner can ask about military matters. The bill will give the Attorney-General the role of determining whether a coronial inquiry is required and clarify that the scope of the coronial inquiry is on establishing the person’s identity and the cause and circumstances of the death.The current Act restricts the information that can be made public about a self-inflicted death without the authorisation of the coroner. There has been much public discussion about the appropriateness of these reporting restrictions and what impact they have on public understanding of suicide as an issue. The Law Commission undertook a first principles review and recommended a number of changes that are reflected in the bill. The bill restricts making public the method of the death and the place where the death occurred if the place suggests the method unless the Chief Coroner has granted an exemption. The Chief Coroner will be able to grant an exemption only if satisfied that any risk of copycat suicidal behaviour is small and outweighed by other matters of public interest. The bill prevents anyone from describing a death as a suicide unless the Chief Coroner has granted an exemption or a coroner has made a finding that the death is suicide. However a death can be reported as a suspected suicide if the facts support that conclusion. The reporting restrictions apply to anyone including individuals using social media or traditional media. However any enforcement is likely to be targeted to the more serious and persistent breaches of the Act.Although many of the changes in the bill are small as I mentioned earlier in the speech they reinforce the public expectations of an effective coronial process which allows deaths to be investigated in a timely and efficient way so that lessons learnt from the death can be addressed quickly and bereaved families can move on with their lives. I commend the bill to the House.