The chief coroner has called for retired circuit judges to be empowered to conduct judge-led inquests
Currently, only sitting or retired High Court judges can be nominated, under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
In his annual report, published last week, the chief coroner, Judge Thomas Teague KC, said he would like to ‘remove that anomaly and widen the pool of judges who can be considered for judge-led inquests involving security-sensitive material’.
Judge Teague’s report said there were many areas ‘still struggling to eradicate the backlogs that built up during the Covid-19 pandemic’, while the financial crisis affected the ability of local authorities and police services to resource the coroner service. He wrote: ‘Under-funding of the service remains a serious and pervasive problem.’
