BEREAVED families are to be given the right to challenge a doctor’s decision on death certificates under radical plans to prevent another Harold Shipman-style case.

Proposals to reform the archaic coroners’ system will mean that families will be able to ask a coroner for a second opinion. They will also be given a swift and easy way to challenge coroners’ rulings, rather than costly legal action, and a proper complaints system, under a draft Bill to be published in April.

The overhaul of the 700-year-old fragmented system will also reform and modernise the way coroners are trained and appointed, to bring the service in line with the rest of the judiciary.

A new chief coroner will be appointed, in the same way that the Lord Chief Justice heads the judiciary, and will be in charge of training and standards. Coroners’ numbers in England and Wales will be cut from about 130 to 60 under a requirement that all must sit full time. At present, many sit part time. They will also have to be legally qualified; at the moment some are doctors.

Announcing the reforms, which will cost £5 million a year, Harriet Harman, QC, Minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, said that the changes would focus on the needs of bereaved families. “Coroners will have a clear power to investigate a death even where a certificate has been issued,” she said.

Coroners will have greater powers to deal with large accidents or with disasters, and new powers to call evidence, including the right to enter premises to search and seize property. “They will have more powers to obtain evidence for their investigations, they will have dedicated medical advice available to them and there will be an end to archaic boundary restrictions which cause unnecessary difficulties.”

The long-awaited proposals draw on both the review of coroner and death certificate systems under Tom Luce, a former senior official, in 2003; and the third report of the Shipman inquiry, chaired by Dame Janet Smith. Ms Harman said that coroners dealt with “cases that are always sad and often tragic” and paid tribute to three who coordinated the identification process after the July 7 London bombings.

Families were frequently overlooked during the inquest process, she said. “There is nowhere for them to turn when they think something is going wrong.” The proposals would give them “a clear legal standing”.

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