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23 Med. Sci. & L. 1 (1983)

handle is hein.journals/mdsclw23 and id is 1 raw text is: Med. Sci. Law (1983) Vol. 23, No. 1 Printed in Great Britain Editorial The guest editorial in this issue is by Dr D. R. Chambers, HM Coroner for Inner North London and a member of the Council of the Coroners' Society of England and Wales As the new year opens many coroners will not only think of it as 1983 but as 12 AB; that number of years having elapsed since the Brodrick report appeared in November 1971. It is a long while ago and I do not imagine that I am alone among coroners who view the judicial tamperings and legislative tinkerings during this period as failing to provide a proper framework for the workings of an efficient coroners' system. What is the present law and practice falls far short of the aims of the committee which hoped that legislation '... to redefine the coroner's powers and responsibilities and to give him much greater discretion to choose the form of his enquiry should not be long delayed.' A point made also in the report of the Royal College of Physicians which appeared towards the end of last year. The Brodrick committee, as will be recalled, ranged widely over the whole field ofpresent day coroner's practice and the report contained 114 recommendations; a small minority have been implemented. Despite this active intervention can it not be said still that the criticisms of the system in paragraphs 11.41 'The law is flexible but only because it is archaic and exiguous' and 13.06 'It is archaic, unwieldly and almost incomprehensible' are still in substance as valid now as when they appeared. Few informed critics of the present situation can now doubt that the need is for a comprehen- sive unifying statute, neither consolidating the archaic as did the Act of 1887 nor merely amending it as in 1926. It will not be easy to draft although a close reading of recent judg- ments will give hints about the more obvious pitfalls to avoid. Such a statute must include sections on the appointment of coroners, their qualifications and training. Something more than being of 5 years standing in the profession of lawyer or doctor is obviously necessary. Is there now not a need for appointments to be made centrally but with local advice? What about a career structure? What Brodrick regarded as 'Supporting services' need to be redefined and provided in an unified manner. Perhaps the only virtue in the delay in imple- menting the report's recommendations is that serving police officers acting as coroners' officers have been seen to have distinct advantages-not least of which is the fact that they remain on duty when other public servants do not. The problem of the coroner's proper accommodation must be tackled; a few, mainly whole-time coroners have good office facilities and a court they can call their own but many do not. Mortuaries are a similar issue. But the main issue is what the coroner's true function is to be. It is spelled out in the opening chapter of the report (Para. I1) and it is a state- ment which could well be studied anew by the legislature and critics alike. 'In our view, the main aim of public policy in all the fields which we have reviewed should be to ensure that the cause of every death is determined and recorded as accurately as possible. The many different ob- jectives served by the present law ... are all more likely to be achieved within a framework of law and administration which is designed with this purpose in view.' This may or may not be an election year. The calls on parliamentary time in the present ses- sion suggest to me at least that legislation to deal with the problems I have described is not likely to have high priority. Would any new govern- ment have more time for the coroners and the sections of the public concerned by their activi- ties than past administrations? There are few votes in the dead however politically motivated some outcries over particular classes of death may be. Yet the problems will not go away and only a well thought out piece of legislation can be expected to start to solve them. Nor is such a statute the end of the matter for if it is to be useful at all its implementation is likely to require reorganization and expenditure. Both may prove to be painful but salutary. 1

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