Justice Committee to hear evidence on Prevention of Future Death reports as part of its Coroner Service inquiry
The Justice Committee will take evidence on coroners’ role in preventing future deaths and the support offered to bereaved people within the coronial process during the second session of its new inquiry into the Coroner Service.
Meeting details
MPs will hear from the Executive Director of the charity INQUEST and an academic from the University of Oxford, who founded and leads the Preventable Deaths Tracker, a platform to learn lessons from coroners’ inquests. They will also hear from both the founder and current CEO of the Coroners’ Courts Support Service (CCSS).
The cross-party committee of MPs launched the inquiry in November 2023 as a follow up to the Committee’s earlier work into the Coroner Service of England and Wales to examine changes made since 2021.
Discussion is expected to focus on the place of the coroners’ Prevention of Future Death reports (PFDs) in increasing public safety and preventing future deaths. The witnesses will give evidence on the work of the Coroners’ Courts Support Service, the issuing of Prevention of Future Death reports, the publication and analysis of PFDs, plus the benefits of a ‘national oversight mechanism’.
During the 2019-21 session the Committee conducted an inquiry examining the effectiveness and capacity of the Coroner Service. This inquiry builds on and revisits that work. It is considering what has changed in the Coroner Service since 2021, checking on the progress that has been made on the Committee’s earlier recommendations.