Chief Coroner’s Guidance No. 37, 28.4.2020

The Chief Coroner has today released his further guidance to coroners during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Chief Coroner sets out when a report to a coroner must be made and when an inquest will and will not be required into a death from what is a naturally occurring disease.

He also puts a shot across the bows of anyone who thinks that these future inquests will be the right forum for examining high level decisions about the supply and provision of PPE to our front line health care workers and care staff:

An inquest is not the right forum for addressing concerns about high-level government or public policy.

The key points of the Chief’s Guidance are set out below:

The steep increase in the number of deaths occurring outside hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic brings a concomitant rise in the number of deaths requiring verification in the community.

Attending those who have died in the community clearly puts health care workers at increased risk of Covid-19 infection themselves.  In response the NHS has put out guidance suggesting that GPs or another suitably qualified health care professional might now verify death remotely by video, or even by telephone, if family members are happy to support that verification process by, for example, reporting down the phone the absence of movement of the chest wall.

Unsurprisingly that guidance (also now promulgated by other organisations)[1]  has resulted in many calls to coroners and the ambulance service (particularly in London) from GPs and funeral directors who want clarification about the rules or advice about how to pronounce life extinct.

In response, London’s Senior Coroners, who have reservations about the NHS Guidance, have today produced a four-page document setting out their agreed view of the death verification requirements, for the benefit of affected people in the London Area. They acknowledge that different approaches are being taken elsewhere.[2]

The Chief Coroner’s Guidance on COVID-19

The Chief Coroner’s Guidance on COVID-19 (No.34) was issued on 26 March 2020 and reinforced on 27 March 2020 with further guidance (No.35). It is helpful to be read in conjunction with the Chief Coroner’s COVID-19 Note #3. It is intended to be the main piece of guidance for all coroners.

The message overall is that coroners have discretion and judgement to exercise in various respects, which they can be expected to exercise in a pragmatic way taking account of the effects of the pandemic.

However, it also makes clear that a Coroner’s Court should be open for “urgent and essential business only” and further, “absent a coroner a court is not a court”.

The reinforcement of this latter aspect tends to suggest approaches have been made to the Chief Coroner, following his Guidance No.34, questioning the need for a coroner to be physically present in a Coroner’s Court in order to conduct a hearing.

The response is a clear and unequivocal… yes.

The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith has introduced a Bill aimed at using the coronial system to record where gambling addiction has contributed to suicide.

If the Coroners (Determination of Suicide) Bill [HL] (HL Bill 32) is passed, then where the inquest’s conclusion is suicide, the coroner or jury will be required to record an opinion “as to any factors which were relevant to the death”[1]

The one factor which the coroner or jury must consider under the proposals is whether the deceased had an addiction to gambling, no other specific factors are identified.[2]

Dr Smith is motivated in bringing forth the Bill having “met far too many families whose lives have been destroyed by the loss of a loved one, often young adults who have their entire lives ahead of them.” Indeed, a quick web search for “gambling” and “suicide” reveals pages of search results detailing a litany of tragic deaths, mostly of young men.