Agenda item

(To consider a report from Paul Smith, Acting Senior Coroner, and Diane Coulson, Assistant Director - Public Protection, on Proposed Submission to the Chief Coroner for the merger of the Lincolnshire and Grimsby and North Lincolnshire Coroners Areas, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive Councillor NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners on 30 July 2021)

The Chairman advised that this item invited the Committee to consider and comment on the proposed submission to the Chief Coroner for the merger of the Lincolnshire and Grimsby and North Lincolnshire Coroners Areas, prior to a decision being taken by Councillor Mrs S Woolley, Executive Councillor NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners on 30 July 2021.

The report had been circulated separately to members of the Committee on 22 July 2021 for their consideration.

The Chairman invited Paul Smith, Acting Chief Coroner and Diane Coulson, Assistant Director – Public Protection, to remotely present the item.

The report made reference to: the background behind the proposal.  It was highlighted that there were currently 88 coroner areas in England and Wales, and that the Chief Coroner and the Ministry of Justice had a long-term plan to reduce this number to 75.  Appendix 1 to the Executive Councillor report provided a Step by Step Guide to Coroners Area mergers.

The Committee noted that the proposed merger had been developed in a collaborative manner, details of the under pinning principles for the proposal were set out in paragraph 1.5 of the report.  It was reported that Lincolnshire County Council would become the "relevant authority" for the revised area and as such would take the lead in the appointment of the Senior Coroner, Area Coroner and Assistant Coroners for the revised area; that staff employed by North East Lincolnshire Council would be transferring to Lincolnshire County Council, but would retain their current work base in Cleethorpes; and that services would share a software system, and extend current operating procedures across the larger area.  Appendix 2 to the Executive Councillor report provided details of the proposed Staffing Structure.

Appendix 3 to the Executive Councillor report provided the Coroner Business Case document for the Committee to consider.

It was noted that a small saving would be made by combining the coronial team.  Further information relating to the phased approach to cost sharing was set out at paragraph 1.8 of the Executive Councillor report.  The Committee noted that oversight and governance of the arrangements would be the responsibility of the Greater Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Oversight Committee supported by an Operational Board.

During consideration of the item, the Committee highlighted the following comments to be noted:

·       Members sought assurance that following the merger, post-mortems would be carried out in the closest area to the deceased and their families as the relocation of a deceased person caused distress to families and delayed funerals.  The stress caused was recognised and assurance was provided, that post-mortems would continue to be carried out at appropriate facilities locally (to the deceased and their families); however, Lincoln had not been able to service requirements and therefore the potential for a public mortuary was being explored to resolve present issues;

·       Concern was raised in relation to transference costs incurred moving the deceased for post-mortems to be carried out, members asked for assurance that the new arrangements would not be more expensive in comparison to those currently in place.  It was confirmed that the costs of transferring the deceased outside and then back into the County was part of the contract cost and that the issue around not retaining the deceased within the County was due to limited availability of pathologists and insufficient facility capabilities within Lincoln to carry out post-mortems.  These issues would be mitigated by a potential public mortuary;

·       Post-mortem contracts were being retendered for the medium and long term, however in the short term the only option was to move the deceased out of the County for those services;

·       Lincolnshire had a Post-mortem rate of 38% of all reported deaths (2020), which was on a par with the national average;

·       The proposed merger would not increase problems for the Police with it cutting across two different policing authorities.  In terms of referrals, there were set processes to be followed and the coroner's service worked very closely with the Police on these.  The merger would require Humberside Police to report into two different authorities, however, it was recognised that Humberside Police was already reporting into different authorities, namely North and North-East Lincolnshire and Hull and East Riding.  Assurance was provided that generating that relationship and developing processes moving forward with Humberside Police was not viewed as a further challenge; and

·       Confirmation was given that the Humberside and Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) had been consulted following on from the Greater Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Oversight Committee meeting in June, which agreed on an informal consultation via letter which was worded in order to not suggest a predetermined outcome.  The letter was sent to Humberside Police and Lincolnshire Police and the PCC requesting early observations and concerns to be reported.  The Committee was advised that no concerns had been reported to date through this activity.

RESOLVED

1.    That the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee unanimously supported the recommendations to the Executive Councillor NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners as set out on page three the report pack.

2.    That the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee agreed that the comments listed above be forwarded on to the Executive Councillor NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners in relation to this item.