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Prisons: Coroners

Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 13 December 2018.

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Photo of Richard Burgon Richard Burgon Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2018 to Question 185683 on Coroners: Legal Representation, how many cases his Department provided funding for legal representation for prisons and probation staff at inquests on deaths in prison in each of the last five years.

Photo of Rory Stewart Rory Stewart The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

All deaths in custody are subject to an inquest, regardless of the apparent cause of death. The table below gives the numbers of inquests opened in each year for which the MoJ funded representation.

2013

184

2014

235

2015

233

2016

306

2017

236

These figures are based on the year in which proceedings were opened, not the year in which the offender died, so some of the inquests opened in 2013 will relate to deaths from earlier years. In addition, the table excludes any proceedings that were already under way in January 2013; and some of the inquests opened in 2017 will not have been concluded in that year. As noted in the Answer to Question 185683, spending in any given year is not related to the number of deaths in that year. Similarly, spending is not directly related to the number of inquests opened in a given year, since some of it will relate to inquests opened in previous years and the costs will vary from case to case.

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  • (Citation: HC Deb, 13 December 2018, cW)

Secretary of State

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