First report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Coroners.
Date:
1909
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners' inquests, and into the practice in coroners' courts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/254 (page 14)
    19 January 1909.) [ Continued. 320. Then there is no provision for registration of deaths where a person has died abroad on land in a foreign country ?—-No. You have to comply with the foreign law in that case. ‘ 321. (Chairman.) Supposing a man dies in Paris and his body is brought home to England, what forms have to be complied with before burying that body P— The death cannot be registered in Hngland, as the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1874, only applies to deaths occurring in this country or at sea. The body would therefore be buried without a regis- trar’s certificate, but notice of the burial would have to be given to the registrar within seven days thereafter. 322. (Dr, Willcox.) If the body is brought home from abroad, I understand that a registrar cannot register it 2—No, he can only register deaths of persons dying in this country. : 323. (Dr. Willcox.) That death would not be in- cluded in the Registrar General’s statistics of deaths for the year in this country. I take it that really the reason why there is a Register of Deaths is to have a proper estimate of the statistics; that is one of the main reasons ?—It may be so. 324. And if such a death should not be included in the deaths in England and Wales ergo the registrar would not register it >—That may be so. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) How do you answer the question whether there should be an inquest or not ? 325. (Chairman.) There would be no inquest unless somebody informed the coroner that there was reason to hold an inquest ?—That is so. 326. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) Supposing there was suspicion of foul play abroad would the coroner hold an inquest if the relatives desired it P—Yes. 327. (Dr. Willcox.) You would agree with this, that when the body of a person who has died in a foreign country is landed here it is not obligatory for anyone to register that death in this country ?—It is not only not obligatory, but the death cannot be registered in this country. 328. These points crop up in cases of cremation. It is impossible under the present law to cremate a body of a person who has died abroad because you cannot get a certificate of death. 329. (Chairman.) It would not be impossible to bury it you say ?—No, because if you do not produce the certificate the person who performs the burial then has to give notice to the registrar within seven days after burial, and if he does not, he may be fined 101. There must be one of two things: either he must have a certificate delivered to him before burial, or if that has not been done he must notify the registrar within seven days. 330. And if it is an ordinary case of a person dying abroad the registrar takes no further action >—That is so. 331. That leads to a pomt that I want to ask you. What machinery is there in law for calling these violent or sudden or unexplained deaths to the notice of the coroner ?—None, with the exception of the provisions of certain Acts relating to particular cases, to which I will presently refer. The only thing is that you find in the Constabulary Regulations for various counties that the chief constable tells the constables of each county that if they find or hear of any matter which leads them to suspect that there has been either a violent death or a sudden death it is their duty to inform the coroner. But there is no statutory obligation on them, it is merely a matter of departmental obligation on the police to do it. And with regard to the individual—any of us—it is a moral obligation and nothing else. There is no such thing as misprision. 332. If we hear of a suspicious death it is our moral duty to tell the coroner: “ Ihave heard this—you make inquiries ’’ P—Yes. 333. Has the registrar or registrar-general any duties with regard to the coroner. If he sees an unusual form of death certificate or does not get a death certificate, can he communicate with the coroner P— There is no statutory provision for it. He would be much in the same place as the police or an individual. 334. It would be his moral duty ; if he was asked to register a death and thought there were suspicious circumstances, he ought to communicate with the coroner P—Yes ; supposing the registrar gets notice within seven days or finds out a little after seven days, if it is after the seven days he says, “‘ Why have I not “had this notice within the seven days? I shall let the ‘‘coroner hear of this,” and if he does, the coroner may then possibly in his own discretion order an inquest and have the body exhumed. 335. May I take it that the coroner has power to order exhumation without going to the Home Secretary P—I think he has. There is, however, section 25 of the Burial Act,. 1857, which says: ‘“ Except in “ eases where a body is removed from one consecrated “place of burial to another by Faculty granted by ‘“‘ the Ordinary for that purpose it shall not be lawful “to remove any body, or the remains of any body, * which may have been interred in any place of burial, without licence under the hand of one of Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State’; but the coroner for so many centuries has exercised the special jurisdiction of ordering (subject to certain control by the King’s Bench) any dead body to be exhumed for the purpose of holding an inquest thereon, that in my opinion it could not have been intended by the legis- lature to affect that jurisdiction by an enactment relating to the removal of dead bodies, or to place the coroner in a very important exercise of his office under the administrative control of the Home Secretary. 336. Practically when a coroner wants to exhume a body and applies to the Home Secretary, he does so, does he not, for this reason, that in exhuming a body, you may interfere with other bodies buried in a common grave which would not be allowable and therefore it would be safer for him to have a Home Secretary’s order ?—I do not quite agree that disturbing other bodies in such a case would not be allowable; but, no doubt, the coroner may think that in such a ease he would avoid possible trouble by obtaining an order of the Home Secretary. 337. Very often a person is buried in a common grave in which there are other bodies, and therefore the Home Secretary’s licence is obtained to open that grave, as it may involve interfering with other corpses P— The licence is not obtamed for merely opening the grave; it only makes lawful the removal of a body which would otherwise be unlawful; and as a question may arise as to the temporary removal of some body from the common grave other than that on which the inquest is to be held, all possibility of trouble is avoided by obtaining the licence. 338. But you have no doubt as to the jurisdiction of the coroner ?—No; the coroner certainly has power to order exhumation. 339. And is sufficient ?—Yes, and is sufficient; although it may be better to get the Home Secretary’s order in cases where other bodies may have to be dis- turbed in order to exhume the body required. 340. (Sir Malcolm Morris.) Is there any penalty on a constable who fails to report to the coroner when he knows of something that has gone wrong ?—Only a disciplinary penalty. : 341. (Chacrman.) He is reported to his superior officer and his superior officer would punish him ?— Yes. 342-6. (Dr. Willcox.) He would not get rapid pro- motion, would he P—Probably not. a n 6 ‘6 5