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Coroners and Justice Bill

The amendment relates to the certificate signed by doctors to enable a body to be created. The system will be entirely replaced by the medical examiner system of scrutiny and medical certificates of cause of death. In the current system two separate medical certificates are required for cremation, which are checked by medical referees. These certificates will continue to be kept according to the relevant storage policy after the new medical examiner system is in place. They will remain available for inspection if required. In future, medical examiners will scrutinise the medical certificates of cause of death for all deaths which are not referred to the coroner, whether the disposal is due to be by cremation or by burial. They will have access to clinical records as part of the scrutiny process. The full record of this process will be retained by the medical examiner’s office for clinical governance purposes. The terms and period of record keeping for this system will be determined as part of the implementation process. That is yet to be determined but I reassure the noble Baroness that it is highly likely to be for at least 15 years. In the light of my explanation, I hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, will agree to withdraw her amendment.