Reform of the coroner system: A potential public health failure

Abstract

The Coroners and Justice Act (2009) represents the latest in a long series of legislative and policy measures aimed at reforming the coroner system. Unfortunately, the Act represents a continued failure to recognize that the legal orientation of the coroner system threatens its capability to contribute to adequate cause-specific disease surveillance and, in doing so, to fulfil its proper role in a public health system. © 2010 The Author, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved.