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Home Office

Answer

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many post-mortem examinations took place in each year since 1995; and how many of these in each year were undertaken (a) because there was suspicion of criminal activity in the death, (b) because the doctor was unsure of the cause of death, (c) for research purposes and (d) for other specified purposes; [150124] (2) how many post mortems in each year since 1995 (a) established a prima facie criminal case, (b) established a previously unknown cause of death and (c) did not establish a cause of death. [150125] Mr. Boateng: Information about the reasons for coroner post-mortem examinations is not held centrally. Available information up to 1999, including data on non-coroner post-mortems held by the Office for National Statistics, is set out in the table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Deaths Reported to a coroner where 126,398 126,184 123,015 124,356 124,780 a post-mortem was held of these: Where a coroner did not 104,151 104,321 100,679 101,165 100,884 proceed to hold an inquest Subject to a post-mortem 413 461 582 695 738 but no cause of death found Inquests Resulting in verdict of 217 169 165 142 165 unlawful killing{1} Resulting in open 2,257 2,151 2,319 2,571 2,497 verdicts{1} Resulting in any other 22,030 21,694 22,171 23,049 23,731 verdict{1} Post-mortems Performed for clinical {2}-- {2}-- 3,614 3,527 3,474 purposes _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} In a small number of cases, inquests will have been held without post-mortem examinations {2} Data not available

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

363 c476W; 150124;150125

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Post-mortems

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk