Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7)

PART 1 U.K. Main provisions

Inquests E+W+N.I.

30 Suspension of requirement to hold inquest with jury: England and Wales E+W

(1) For the purposes of section 7(2)(c) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (requirement for inquest to be held with jury if senior coroner has reason to suspect death was caused by notifiable disease etc), COVID-19 is not a notifiable disease.

(2) This section applies to an inquest that is opened while this section is in force (regardless of the date of the death).

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 30 continued until 25.9.2022 (24.3.2022) by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Delay in Expiry: Inquests, Courts and Tribunals, and Statutory Sick Pay) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/362), regs. 1(2), 2

F1 31 Suspension of requirement to hold inquest with jury: Northern Ireland N.I.

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Textual Amendments

F1 S. 31 expires (25.3.2022) by Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7), s. 89 (with s. 90)

32 Deaths in custody from natural illness: Northern Ireland N.I.

(1) Subsection (2) applies if—

(a) an inquest is required to be held in pursuance of section 39(2) of the 1953 Act (death of a prisoner), and

(b) it appears to the coroner that the death was caused by natural illness.

(2) The coroner need not comply with the requirement in section 18(1) of the 1959 Act; and, accordingly, the coroner may proceed to hold or continue to hold the inquest without a jury.

(3) But if in any case to which subsection (2) applies it appears to the coroner, either before or in the course of an inquest begun without a jury, that it is desirable to summon a jury, the coroner may proceed to cause a jury to be summoned as if it were being summoned in accordance with section 18(1) of the 1959 Act.

(4) Section 13(2) of the 1959 Act has effect in relation to an inquest held without a jury in reliance on subsection (2) as if for the words from “Where more than” to “all the deaths so resulting” there were substituted “ Where more than one inquest is required to be held in pursuance of section 39(2) of the 1953 Act and it appears to the coroner that all of the deaths were caused by natural illness and that one inquest ought to be held into them all, ”.

(5) In this section—

• “the 1953 Act” means the Prison Act (Northern Ireland) 1953 (c. 18 (N.I.));

• “the 1959 Act” means the Coroners Act (Northern Ireland) 1959 (c. 15 (N.I.)).

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C2 S. 32 continued until 24.9.2022 (27.1.2022) by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Extension of Provisions Related to Courts, Tribunals and Inquests) Order (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/24), arts. 1, 2