Latest Coronial Statistics Highlight Isle Of Wight's Unique Challenges

The Ministry of Justice has today (Thursday) released the 2024 coronial statistics, providing data drawn from the annual returns of individual Coroner Areas.

The Ministry of Justice advises against direct comparisons between different areas due to their unique characteristics and demographics, which can lead to misleading conclusions about overall performance.

The Isle of Wight is recognised as a particularly complex Coronial Area, due to several different factors.

These include a higher-than-average rate of road traffic collision deaths, a large elderly prison population, a secure mental health unit, and an older general population.

The high number of care homes per capita, challenges faced by NHS services, a fully coastal border, and significant population surges during major events, such as annual music and sailing festivals, all contribute to this complexity.

Additionally, the Isle of Wight hosts the only active formal ‘Burials at Sea’ site off the Needles. Areas of deprivation on the Island also impact the Coroner's Service.

Caroline Sumeray, His Majesty’s Senior Coroner for the Isle of Wight, said:

“I recognise that the Isle of Wight Coronial Area is not the fastest to complete Inquests.

"There are multiple reasons for this, including the non-availability of an Island-based pathologist willing to do coronial work; a larger proportion of inquests having to wait for other external agencies' investigations to be completed before they can proceed, and the need to ensure that we carry out extremely thorough investigations.

"Those investigations do take time to resolve. It goes without saying that the fastest investigations are not always the most robust. It is essential that I leave no stone unturned.”

Wendy Perera, chief executive of the Isle of Wight Council, emphasised the importance of the Island’s Coroner's Service. 

She said:

"Supporting Island families and the Coroner’s Office is of great importance to the council.

"We work in partnership with His Majesty’s Senior Coroner to provide the staffing and facilities to support the service and delivery of the Coroner’s statutory role.

"For many years, it has been difficult to maintain a fully staffed service which has impacted on service delivery. In addition, access to court facilities has also been challenging.

"The council has recently invested in creating a purpose-built Coroner’s Court at Seaclose Park to alleviate some of these pressures; steps are also being taken to ensure staffing resilience and to address any delay linked to these two issues.”

The council and HM Senior Coroner are confident that by working together, they will deliver the required improvements in the service.

The council remains committed to supporting the Coroner and the Island’s Coroner's Service to ensure the delivery of the best possible support for Island families.