1 Response Accepted Self-assessed

Chief Coroner guidance on coroners' records

Recommendation

We recommend that the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice invite the Chief Coroner to prepare guidance for all coroners on the appropriate retention and archiving of documents in coroners' records. Particular care should be taken to safeguard records relating to inquests arising from mass fatalities, whether attributable to natural or civil disasters or to unlawful killing, and arising from deaths in custody, whether in police stations or in prisons.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
The Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013 introduced formal requirements for coroners' record retention, mandating that all inquest recordings be kept for at least 15 years under regulation 27(1) (Govt response, 2012-12-01). The Chief Coroner, appointed under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, has issued guidance on coroners' records, and The National Archives has published appraisal and selection criteria for inquest files (Govt response, 2012-12-01).
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 24 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk
Jurisdiction
England and Wales
Response
Accepted
Accepted Ministry of Justice
01 Dec 2012

Implemented. The Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013 introduced formal requirements for coroners' record retention. Under regulation 27(1), all inquest recordings must be kept for at least 15 years. The Chief Coroner, appointed under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, has issued guidance on coroners' records. The National Archives has also published appraisal and selection criteria for coroners' inquest files providing a good practice model for permanent preservation of significant cases including mass fatalities and deaths in custody. (Sources: Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013; Chief Coroner's Guidance No.4 Recordings; National Archives guidance on coroners' inquest files)

Source
Inquiry Hillsborough Panel
Report Hillsborough: The Report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel 12 Sep 2012
View Source
Responsible Bodies
Ministry of Justice Primary
Themes & Tags
Coroner family information gaps Coroners Records Archiving Coroner
Recommendation age 13.5 yrs
Last formal update 4861 days ago