Section 36: Reports and advice to the Lord Chancellor from the Chief Coroner
277.Subsection (1) requires the Chief Coroners to give an annual report to the Lord Chancellor.
278.The Chief Coroner’s annual report must cover any matters he or she wishes to bring to the attention of the Lord Chancellor, and any matters the Lord Chancellor has asked the Chief Coroner to cover in the report. The report must also contain an assessment of consistency of standards between coroner areas; information about investigations that have taken over 12 months to complete; authorisations given under Schedule 5 for coroners to enter and search land and seize items; the number, nature and outcomes of appeals made to the Chief Coroner; and a summary of matters reported by coroners under paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 to prevent future deaths, and the responses to those reports under sub-paragraph (2) of that paragraph.
279.The annual report must be published by the Lord Chancellor, and a copy would be laid before each House of Parliament.
280.As well as producing an annual report from the Chief Coroner to the Lord Chancellor, it is also intended that the Chief Coroner will be able to publish occasional summaries of the reports made by coroners to prevent future deaths and the responses to them.
281.If requested to do so by the Lord Chancellor, the Chief Coroner must by virtue of subsection (7) give advice to the Lord Chancellor about particular matters relating to the operation of the coroner system.