Decision details

Subject to formal approval by the City of York Council, to submit the business case to the Ministry of Justice and Chief Coroner seeking permission to merge all three existing coroners areas into one area.
Subject to formal approval by the City of York Council, to approve the proposed Service Level Agreement with the City of York Council.

The only proposal that the Chief Coroner and the Ministry of Justice will realistically accept will be a merger of the three existing areas. The three areas are now effectively functioning as one area with a shared Senior Coroner and administrative support team and systems.

1)Merge the two North Yorkshire area areas but without a merger with the City of York;
2)The increased use of Assistant Coroners to reduce the hours worked by the appointed Senior Coroner (being mindful of the expected workload and the impact on their health and wellbeing);
3)The use of a legal executive to help manage the Coroners’ workload.
All of these options are less cost-effective and less beneficial than the one Senior Coroner model.