Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any requirement for a coroner functus officio to respond to emails of an interested person.

Coroners are independent judicial officers and the way in which they conduct their investigations is entirely a matter for them. It would therefore be inappropriate for the Government to comment on, or intervene in, the coroner’s decisions in relation to an individual case.

There is no specific statutory requirement for a coroner to respond to an email from an interested person. However, the Coroners (Inquest) Rules 2013 and the Coroner (Investigations) Regulations 2013 provide a framework for managing disclosure, including after inquest, to Interested Persons and others. In addition, the Chief Coroner has issued guidance to coroners on disclosure to interested persons (Chief Coroner’s Guidance No.25 on Coroners and the Media).

If a family has concerns about a decision made by the coroner, they may want to seek to discuss this with the coroner. Judicial decisions by coroners are capable of being challenged by making an application to the High Court for judicial review. Complaints about the personal conduct of a coroner can be made to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.