NO LOCAL AUTHORITY has appointed a full-time coroner in nearly 20 years according to a new government audit.

The report is the latest in a series of reviews produced by the Value for Money (VFM) Unit of the Local Government Audit Service, which carries out VFM studies with a view to identifying best practice and recommending ways of improving existing procedures, practices and systems and thereby promoting efficiency and cost effectiveness.

The report found that a review of legislation has found that the Coroner Service needs to be updated, that fees and retainer rates have not been updated since 2003 and 2009 and that there is a lack of compliance with procurement rules when it comes to undertaking services.

Coroners are independent office holders charged with the legal responsibility for the investigation of sudden, unexplained, violent and unnatural deaths in his or her district. Local authorities fund the operation of the Coroner Service in each district from their own resources as there is no central funding for the financing of this service.

The report also found that no appointments have been made by local authorities since 2000 because local authorities are unsure of how to hire someone to the position and that guidance should now be issued to assist local authorities with future recruitment.

The report shows that 53% of coroners are working on an acting basis, 10% were appointed by a Justice Minister and 26% by the Local Appointments Commission.

“When asked why coroners were appointed in an acting capacity, local authorities provided the following reasons:

• The impact of the restructuring of the coroner districts under the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions ) Act 2011
• The pending legislation that was envisaged under the Coroners Bill 2007, which would have resulted in a number of radical reforms, was imminent
•  Over half of the local authorities surveyed were not aware that they were required to carry out the appointment for the vacant positions under the legislation.

“All of these issues have resulted in a lack of open competition at local authority level for any coroner vacancies that have arisen since 2000, even where there was no requirement to amalgamate coroner districts within the local authority i.e. the local authority only had one coroner district prior to the retirement.”

The new legislation was never enacted and all of the acting appointments have continued in over half of the local authorities.

The Department of Justice says that there is no current vacancies, but the recruitment process is a matter for local authorities.

“The legislation governing Coroners is the Coroners Act, 1962, as amended. Section 8 of the Act provides that there shall be a coroner for every Coroner’s district who shall be appointed by the Local Authority in whose area the district is situated.

“The recruitment process is therefore a matter for each county’s Local Authority. It is understood that Local Authorities were reluctant to engage with the recruitment process in recent years, pending the introduction of new coronial legislation.

“However, it must be stressed that despite this, there are no vacancies in any coronial district, as ‘Acting Coroners’ have assumed the duties of the coroner.”

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