Planned additions to 2010 edition of the bulletin
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Coroners Statistics. This annual bulletin presents statistics on the workload of coroners in England and Wales. Information is provided on the number of deaths reported to coroners, post-mortem examinations and inquests held and conclusions recorded at inquests. It also covers treasure finds reported to coroners, treasure inquests held under the Treasure Act, and proportion of treasure verdicts returned. The data are collected via annual statistical returns completed by coroners.

Data on deaths reported to the coroner are available by gender, age (of deceased with an inquest conclusion recorded) and coroner area. Information is also available on deaths in state detention (including those individuals subject Deprivation of Liberty orders), inquest conclusions and deaths abroad.

Statistical notice 
Inclusion of new data to 2010 
edition of the statistical bulletin 
‘Statistics on deaths reported to 
coroners, England and Wales’ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Published March 2010 
 

Planned additions to 2010 edition of the statistical bulletin 
‘Statistics on deaths reported to coroners, England and 
Wales’ 
 
 
Introduction 
 
1. This note is to advise users of planned additions to the next edition of 
the National Statistics bulletin ‘Statistics of deaths reported to coroners, 
England and Wales’, which is due to be published 20 May 2010 and 
will report on deaths reported to coroners during 2009. 
 
 
Summary 
 
2. The annual bulletin presents statistics on the work of coroners in 
England and Wales.  Data are obtained from statistical returns 
submitted by all coroners under the requirements of the Coroners Act 
1988.  The release presents figures on deaths reported to coroners, 
inquests and post mortems held, and verdicts returned.  The 
publication also includes data on finds reported to coroners, inquests 
and verdicts, under Treasure legislation. 
 
3. The 2010 edition of the bulletin will include, for the first time, summary 
statistics on the timeliness of inquests.  Information on the time taken to 
conduct inquests has been collected from coroners since around 1995 
in order to facilitate the management of the coroner service.  Although 
these data have not previously been included within the annual 
statistical bulletin, this information has always previously been made 
available upon request (for example, in response to Parliamentary 
Questions or Freedom of Information Act requests). 
 
4. For the purpose of determining the timeliness of inquests in the 
statistics, the time taken to conduct an inquest is deemed to be from 
the day the death was reported to the coroner until either (a) the day 
the inquest is concluded by the delivery of a verdict or (b) the day the 
coroner certifies that an adjourned inquest will not be resumed. 
 

5. The average time for an inquest to be conducted is calculated in the 
following way.  Coroners are asked in their annual return to state how 
many inquests were concluded within certain time periods (1 to 3 
months, 3 to 6 months, etc.)  All the inquests falling within a time-band 
are then assumed to have been completed at or near the mid-point of 
the various time-bands for the purposes of calculating the average.  
Numbers are then aggregated and the average figure (in weeks) 
estimated in the normal way. 
 
6. Timeliness information is only collected in relation to inquests into 
deaths occurring within England and Wales. Deaths occurring 
elsewhere can be significantly delayed for various reasons, for example 
due to the difficulty of obtaining reports from other countries. 
 
7. All statistics which appeared in the 2009 edition of the bulletin will 
continue to be published in the 2010 edition.  
 
 
Contact details and further information 
 
For queries, comments or further information on the issues set out in this note, 
please contact: 
 
Justice Statistics Analytical Services Division 
Ministry of Justice 
7th floor 
102 Petty France 
London SW1H 9AJ 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
Email: xxx@xxx.xx 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Produced by the Ministry of Justice 
 
Alternative format versions of this report are available on request from 
xxx@xxx.xx