b. Is one of at least 2 coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old and have that percentage of precious metal; or In 2021, 32,322 inquest conclusions were recorded, up 4% on 2020. Inquest conclusions of accident/misadventure, suicide and unclassified conclusions were up 2%, 8% and 24% on 2020 to 7,696, 4,820 and 8,126 respectively. The decreases in time taken that occurred in 2015 and 2016 can largely be attributed to DoLS deaths where, in accordance with the Chief Coroner’s guidance, in uncontroversial cases, there could be a ‘paper inquest’, i.e. the Coroner in open court considered the evidence on the papers, which had been discussed in advance with the family (and interested persons) – this agreed process which usually did not require a post-mortem examination report took much less time to process and conclude – thus reducing the average time.

For the purpose of determining the timeliness of inquests, the time taken to conduct an inquest is deemed to be from the day the death was reported to the coroner until either (a) the day the inquest is concluded by recording a conclusion or (b) the day the coroner certifies that an adjourned inquest will not be resumed. The proportion of conclusions recorded as suicide has remained broadly constant over the past four years, seeing an increase from 14% of all conclusions in 2020 to 15% in 2021.The annual Coroners Statistics bulletin presents statistics on deaths reported to coroners, post-mortem examinations and inquests held, and conclusions recorded at inquests in England and Wales. All editions of the bulletin can be found here:

The estimated average time taken to process an inquest increased from 27 weeks in 2020 to 31 weeks in 2021. Under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”), each coroner area has one senior coroner, and one or more assistant coroners. A coroner area may also have an area coroner (who may function as a deputy to the senior coroner).INQUEST is the only charity providing expertise on state related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians.