The Coroners (Investigations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Made: 1st June 2022

Laid before Parliament: 7th June 2022

Coming into force: 28th June 2022

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 43(1)(a) and (3)(a) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009[^f00001], and with the agreement of the Lord Chief Justice in accordance with section 43(2), makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement, extent and application

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Coroners (Investigations) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 and come into force on 28th June 2022.

• (2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales.

• (3) These Regulations shall have effect in relation to any investigation which has not been completed prior to the commencement of these Regulations.

Amendment of regulation 17 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013

2

In regulation 17 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013[^f00002]—

• (a) in the heading, for “is revealed by post-mortem examination” substitute “becomes clear before inquest”,

• (b) omit “the post-mortem examination reveals” and

• (c) after “the cause of death” insert “becomes clear in the course of an investigation”.

Signed

Tom Pursglove — Parliamentary Under Secretary of State — Ministry of Justice — 1st June 2022

I agree

Burnett of Maldon, C.J. — Lord Chief Justice

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These Regulations amend the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013 in order to reflect the changes to section 4 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25) that were made by section 39 of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 (c. 35). The amendment to section 4 allows a coroner to discontinue an investigation where the cause of death becomes clear before inquest, whether this is revealed by post-mortem examination or by other information. Previously, when a coroner started an investigation, they could only discontinue the investigation if the results of a post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death. In practice this meant that, if the cause of death was revealed during the investigation from other sources of evidence, the investigation could only be concluded by a formal inquest, or by arranging an otherwise unnecessary post-mortem examination.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2009 c. 25.

[^f00002]: S.I. 2013/1629.