Local Government Act 1888

5 Appointment of coroners by county council.

(1) After the appointed day a coroner for a county shall not be elected by the freeholders of the county, and on any vacancy occurring in the office of a coroner for a county, who is elected to that office in pursuance of a writ de coronatore eligendo, a like writ for the election of a successor shall be directed to the county council of the county instead of to the sheriff, and the county council shall thereupon appoint a fit person, not being a county alderman or county councillor, to fill such office, and in the case of a county divided into coroners districts shall assign him a district; and any person so appointed shall have like powers and duties, and be entitled to like remuneration, as if he had been elected coroner for the county by the freeholders thereof.

(2) Where the district of any such coroner is situate wholly within any administrative county, the council of that county shall, subject as herein-after mentioned, appoint the coroner.

(3) Where the district of any such coroner is situate partly in one and partly in another administrative county forming part of an entire county, the joint committee for the entire county may arrange for the alteration in manner provided by law of the district, so that, on the next avoidance of the office of coroner of that district, or at any earlier time fixed by the joint committee when the alteration is made, the coroner's district shall not be situate in more than one administrative county.

(4) Until such arrangement is made, the joint committee for the entire county shall appoint the coroner for the said district, and the amount payable in respect of the salary, fees, and expenses of such coroner shall be defrayed in like manner as costs of the joint committee are directed by this Act to be defrayed.

(5) Nothing in this Act respecting the appointment of a coroner shall alter the jurisdiction of a coroner for the entire county, or any power of removing such coroner, whether by writ de coronatore exonerando or otherwise, and all writs for the election or removal of a coroner shall be altered so as to give effect to this section.

(6) Sections eleven and fourteen and the First Schedule of the [50 & 51 Vict. c. 71.] Coroners Act, 1887, and any other enactment relating to the election of a coroner for a county by the freeholders of such county or any district thereof, are hereby repealed 'as from the appointed day, without prejudice to anything done or suffered, or any legal proceeding commenced or penalty incurred before such repeal takes effect.

(7) A person who holds the office of coroner shall not be qualified to be elected as a county alderman or county councillor for the county for which he is a coroner.