Coroners Statistics 2023 published 9 May 2024

The Ministry of Justice has published a report on Coroners statistics 2023: England and Wales.

The headline findings of the report are that the number of deaths reported to the coroners in 2023 (195,000) are down by 6% compared to 2022. The proportion of registered deaths has also decreased three percentage points compared to 2022.

Despite the drop in deaths and referrals there was a 2% increase in the number of inquests opened in 2023 compared to 2022.

There were 39,469 inquest conclusions recorded in 2023, up 11% from 2022. The most common short form conclusions were death by misadventure (25% of all conclusions), death by natural causes (14%), and suicide (13%).

It is also of note for practitioners that there was a 41% increase in the number of Prevention of Future Deaths reports published. 569 reports were published in 2023, compared to 404 in 2022. Both the South West and the East Midlands issued more than double the number of Preventable Future Deaths reports in 2023 than in 2022, going from 28 and 21 to 60 and 43, respectively.

The full report is available here and the statistical tables (for those that are particularly keen) are available here.