Coroners play a vital role in the administration of justice and hold an office of great antiquity. Yet little is known about who coroners are or how they see their role in the justice system, and their contribution has long been overlooked in legal scholarship. This research aimed to address these knowledge gaps by (1) producing a detailed demographic profile of the coronership; (2) understanding coroners’ attitudes towards their role in the administration of justice; and (3) comparing coroners’ experience of their working lives with those of other judges. An anonymous, voluntary online survey of coroners was conducted to achieve this.

This thesis presents the findings from the Coroner Attitude Survey 2020, the first major quantitative survey of the backgrounds, attitudes and experiences of all coroners in England and Wales. It had an extremely high response rate (100% of senior coroners, 100% of area coroners and 85% of assistant coroners) and mirrored a survey of judges in the courts and tribunals of England and Wales, which enabled direct comparisons between coroners and these other judicial office holders.

Key findings of this research revealed that:

• While coroners do not reflect the population of England and Wales in terms of either gender or ethnicity, it is no longer a “self-perpetuating group”.

• Coroners have a strong personal attachment to being part of the coronership, but they feel detached from the rest of the judiciary.

• Coroners see their most important functions as providing answers to the public on cause of death and preventing further deaths.

• While most coroners believe the inquest can be a cathartic process, they disagree with therapeutic approaches taken in recent high profile death inquiries.

• While coroners see the creation of a Chief Coroner as beneficial, most feel further change is necessary, including a unified, national coroner service.