Asked by: Dan Byles (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many coroners' inquests have been held into the death of a child below the age of four as a result of being a passenger in a road traffic accident in each of the last five years; in how many of those cases the inquest found that a faulty child's car seat was a contributory factor; and in how many of those cases the inquest found that an incorrectly fitted child's car seat was a contributory factor.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The Ministry of Justice collects data from coroners for the annual Coroners Statistics bulletin, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coroners-statistics-2013
The statistical information is collected in summary form, which does not include data at the level of detail requested.
Coroners are independent judicial office holders, appointed by a local authority within the coroner area, and are not employed by the Ministry of Justice.
To provide the information requested would require the Ministry of Justice to ask coroners in England and Wales to examine their records for over five thousand inquests to extract the information and provide a summary report to the centre. As such, this information is only available at disproportionate cost.