New guidance for Coroners on the Bench

The Chief Coroner, Her Honour Judge Alexia Durran, has launched a new “Bench Book” – guidance for coroners on the bench covering all aspects of court inquest work. The guidance titled Chief Coroner’s Guidance for Coroners on the Bench is a significant step towards ensuring consistency and best practice in coronial work. 

It has been produced as a resource for coroners to help them locate key principles, practical information and precedents when dealing with inquests, but it will also be a key resource for all inquest practitioners. 

While the guidance is not legally binding and does not replace the need for coroners to conduct their own legal research, it holds the same status as the Chief Coroner’s existing guidance notes and law sheets. Readers will see that there are 18 chapters which include and expand on earlier Chief Coroner guidance notes. It says that “until the exiting guidance notes are withdrawn or updated, there may be inconsistencies between them and some aspects of the Bench Guidance. Where such inconsistencies exist, the Bench Guidance will prevail.”

The Bench Guidance is intended to be a “live” document and will be regularly reviewed with future chapters covering Article 2. The Chief Coroner makes a gentle request asking practitioners to avoid printing and filing the guidance but encouraging practitioners to check the online version. 

Current chapters cover:

1.    Opening the Inquest
2.    Interested Persons
3.    Pre-inquest review hearings
4.    Documentary inquests and inquests in writing
5.    The Inquest Hearing
6.    Remote hearings
7.    Scope of the inquest
8.    Open Justice
9.    Anonymity of witnesses and reporting restrictions
10.    Contempt of Court
11.    Jury inquests
12.    Disclosure of documents
13.    Witnesses
14.    Expert evidence
15.    Conclusions
16.    Reports to prevent future deaths (PDFs)
17.    Overturning inquests
18.    Counsel to the inquest

There are three notable additions to the guidance covering:

•    Guidance on naming the deceased 
•    Reminding everyone to avoid using the word “committed” if referring to a death from suicide
•    Stamping out the practice of inquest advocates filing unilateral submissions with a Coroner without serving these on other IPs 

The Bench Guidance published yesterday, 27 January 2025 is the work of a team of experienced coroners led by Christopher Dorries OBE and Bridget Dolan KC who between them edit or contribute to the two main legal textbooks on coronial law. 

To find out more, you can read Bridget Dolan KC’s blog post here and you can also watch Bridget in this video share the view of the coroner. You can also watch all our inquest videos here. 

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