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Coroners: Standards

Asked by John CooperConservativeMinistry of JusticeTabled Answered 24 June 2026UIN 10372

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many inquests are outstanding; and how many of those inquests involve use of force by the military, the police and paramilitaries.

Answered by Catherine Atkinson

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on the operation of coroner services annually here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coroners-and-burials-statistics. However, we do not collect real-time information on the number of open inquests or the factors under consideration in individual coroner investigations. This is because, whilst the Ministry of Justice is responsible for coroner law and policy, the delivery of coroner services is administered locally by the funding local authority in each of the 74 coroner areas in England and Wales.

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