Home Office: Coroners (CRN and CRS Symbol Series) Files

Files from the Home Office CRN & CRS (Coroners) series. They relate mainly to legislation, general administration and complaints by members of the public, and illustrate the responsibilities of the General Department for Coroners, including the issuing of circulars, collection of statistics, fixing of salaries and inquest into deaths.

The papers in this series are arranged by departmental file number. The inclusion of a date before or after a file number (as in CRN (1961) 1/4/18) indicates the year in which the file is supposed to have been created, but often it only indicates the year in which the first subfile was raised on a particular subject.

Coroners' records are preserved at local record offices under s4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958.

Minutes and papers of the Brodrick Committee on Death Certification and Coroners are in HO 375

From 1985 Home Office

Topics

Pay and pensions

Population

The Home Office's main functions are the collation of statistical returns, the issuing of circulars publicising the effects of new legislation or policy and the fixing of salaries in cases of disagreement.

Coroners are appointed by county councils (and until 1972 by county boroughs) but the Home Office receives notice of all new appointments and it works in conjunction with the Lord Chancellor's Department in disciplining coroners and in regulating procedures at inquests and post-mortems.