Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that the cause of death of those who have died while under the care of an NHS gender clinic is accurately recorded and reported.

All deaths in England and Wales must be reviewed by a medical examiner. Medical examiners are senior doctors who have not been involved in caring for the deceased, and provide independent scrutiny comprising three elements:

• a proportionate review of medical records;
• a review of the causes of death proposed by the attending practitioner and consideration of whether the coroner needs to be notified; and
• an opportunity for bereaved people to ask whether they have questions about the cause of death or concerns about the care of the deceased person before death.

The medical examiner completes a declaration on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death that the causes of death are true to the best of their knowledge and belief.

The Notification of Deaths Regulations 2019 set out the types of deaths that medical practitioners must notify to senior coroners, for example, if the death is unnatural, if the cause of death is unknown, or if it is due to the use of a medicinal product. Where a death has been notified to the coroner, the coroner will decide whether they have a duty to investigate the death. If they do investigate, the coroner will focus on establishing who has died, where and when they died and how they died.