Domestic Abuse: Suicide
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for coronial inquiries of the 150 suspected domestic abuse-related suicides recorded by the NPCC Domestic Homicide Project; and what plans he has to ensure inquests routinely consider histories of coercive control.
Answered by Ministry of Justice
By law, coroners must open an investigation and conduct an inquest into any death which they suspect to have been unnatural or violent. This will include cases where the death may have been the result of self-harm.
However, coroners are independent judges and, as such, their decisions on the issues and evidence they need to consider in an individual case (i.e. its scope) are a matter for them. In individual cases, the findings of any Domestic Homicide Review will be provided to the coroner and may form part of the evidence considered in the inquest.
The Chief Coroner of England and Wales has provided extensive guidance for coroners to support them in those decisions. Chapter 7 of the Guidance for Coroners on the Bench addresses the issue of scope (Scope of the inquest - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary). As judges, coroners are also guided and bound by statute and the significant case law on the matter of scope.
Coroners are trained by the Judicial College, which trains all judges and is independent of government. As set out in the action plan accompanying volume 2 of the Government’s VAWG Strategy Freedom from violence and abuse (Freedom from violence and abuse volume 2: action plan (accessible) - GOV.UK), published in December 2025, the 2025/26 training programme for coroners included the sharing of experience and best practice in investigating deaths where domestic abuse is believed to be a factor.
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