The main purpose of the Act is:

To deliver a more effective, transparent and responsive justice and coroner service for victims, witnesses, bereaved families and the wider public.

The main elements of the Act are:

• Creation of a new national coroner service, led by a new Chief Coroner, moving towards whole time coroners working within flexible jurisdictions and to national minimum standards, with powers to commission non-invasive post-mortems where appropriate, and complying with a charter of services for bereaved families; 
• Creation of a new system of secondary certification of deaths that are not referred to the coroner, covering both burials and cremations;
• Reform of the law on homicide and, in particular abolishing the existing partial defence of provocation and replacing it with two new partial defences of killing in response to a fear of serious violence, and killing in response to words or conduct which caused the defendant to have a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged; and modernising the partial defence of diminished responsibility based on the concept of a “recognised medical condition”.
• Simplifying and modernising the offence of assisting suicide;
  • Establish a new Sentencing Council for England and Wales, in place of the Sentencing Guidelines Council, with a strengthened remit to promote consistency in sentencing practice;
• Enabling the courts to pass an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) for certain terrorist offences;
• Preventing criminals from profiting from books and other publications about their crimes through the introduction of a civil recovery scheme; 
• Amendments to the Data Protection Act to strengthen the inspection powers of the Information Commissioner. 
• Re-enacting the provisions of the emergency Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008 so that the courts may continue to grant anonymity to vulnerable or intimidated witnesses where this is consistent with a defendant’s right to a fair trial, and making provision for the courts to grant Investigative Witness Anonymity Orders in certain gun and knife crime cases; 
• Extending the use of special measures in criminal proceedings (such as the use of live video links and screens around the witness box) so that  vulnerable and intimidated witnesses can give their best evidence; and 
• Amendments to sentencing and other legislation to support implementation of the Framework Decision on taking about of convictions in the Member States of the European Union in the course of new criminal proceedings.

The main benefits of the Act are:

• Increased public confidence in the criminal law and the fairness and effectiveness of the wider justice system;
• Giving vulnerable and intimidated witnesses, including in respect of gun and gang related violence, the best possible protection, right from the early stages of the criminal justice process;
• A more consistent and transparent sentencing framework;
• stronger inspection powers to improve public confidence in the way that their data is held and used;
• Significantly improving the service bereaved families receive from a reformed coroner system;
• Giving those who are suddenly or unexpectedly bereaved  opportunities to participate in coroners’ investigations, including rights to information and access to a straightforward appeals system;
• Reassuring all those who are bereaved that there is independent checking of the causes of death given on death certificates.

‘Making sure that crime doesn’t pay: proposals for a new measure to prevent convicted criminals profiting from published accounts of their crimes’ (Home Office/Northern Ireland Office/Scottish Executive, November 2006)

Consultation on the Possession of non-photographic visual depictions of child sexual abuse: summary of responses and next steps (Ministry of Justice/Northern Ireland Office, May 2008)

Sentencing Commission Working Group ‘A structured sentencing framework and Sentencing Commission: A consultation paper’ 31 March 2008

Sentencing Commission Working Group: ‘Sentencing Guidelines in England and Wales: an evolutionary approach’ July 2008

‘Coroner Reform: The Government’s Draft Bill Improving death investigation in England and Wales’, Department of Constitutional Affairs, June 2006

‘Coroners Bill - Changes made resulting from consultation’, Ministry of Justice, 27 March 2008

‘Statutory Duty for Doctors and other Public Service Personnel to Report Deaths to the Coroner: Response to consultation’, Ministry of Justice, 21 May 2008

‘Summary of responses to the consultation on improving the process of death certification’, Department of Health, May 2008

If you have any comments on the Bill you can email them to:

charles.goldie@justice.gsi.gov.uk