Coroner

The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary's own guidance describes coroners in terms that place them firmly among the judiciary rather than as investigators in the ordinary sense: 'Coroners are independent judicial office holders (like judges) who investigate certain deaths.' Their jurisdiction is triggered by geography and by the nature of the death, not by a report from any particular source: 'When a coroner receives a report of a body within their geographical area the coroner will investigate any death which is violent or unnatural or the cause of which is unknown or which occurs in prison, police custody or other state detention.'

Not every death that is reported to a coroner results in a full inquest. Guidance explains that 'Where the coroner establishes at an early stage, sometimes after a post-mortem examination (autopsy), that the death is from natural causes, there may be no need for further investigation.' Where an investigation is required, the coroner must establish, so far as possible, who died and where, when, and how they came by their death — and only a small minority of inquests, such as certain deaths in prison, are held with a jury.