Coroners and Justice Act 2009

Summary

The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 made wide-ranging reforms to the coroner system, homicide law, and sentencing. It reformed the partial defences to murder (loss of control replacing provocation, and diminished responsibility), created the office of Chief Coroner, reformed the law on anonymous witness orders, and introduced sentencing guidelines machinery.

Key Points

• Abolished provocation and replaced it with loss of control (ss.54-56)
• Reformed diminished responsibility to require a 'recognised medical condition' (s.52)
• Created the office of Chief Coroner to oversee the coroner system
• Introduced investigation and inquest reforms for coroners
• Established the Sentencing Council for England and Wales
• Reformed witness anonymity orders
• Created offences of holding someone in slavery or servitude and forced labour
• Chief Coroner established
• Duty to investigate violent, unnatural, or custodial deaths
• Prevention of Future Deaths reports
• Article 2 enhanced investigations
• Loss of control (s.54–56) — Replaced provocation as a partial defence to murder. Requires loss of self-control, a qualifying trigger (fear of violence or circumstances of an extremely grave character giving a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged), and that a person of the same sex and age with a normal degree of tolerance might have reacted in the same way
• Diminished responsibility reformed (s.52) — Amended s.2 of the Homicide Act 1957 to require an 'abnormality of mental functioning' arising from a recognised medical condition
• Coroner reform — Established the Chief Coroner and modernised the coroner service
• Sentencing guidelines — Created the Sentencing Council for England and Wales
• Witness anonymity — Provided statutory framework for witness anonymity orders

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