Questions are once again being asked of the Coroner for the Isle of Wight, Caroline Sumeray, as the backlog of inquests waiting to be heard builds – but she has refused to provide answers. As reported by Island Echo back in July, bereaved families are waiting, on average, 63 weeks for an inquest – more than double the average across England and Wales. And it’s feared that number is only getting bigger… A Freedom of Information request was recently sent to the Coroner through the BBC Local Democracy Reporting scheme, requesting information about the number of closed and open inquests between 2018 and 2023. However, it was made clear by Mrs Sumeray that the Coroner is not a public authority so she was not required to supply the information and would not do so. It comes as an absence of inquests being held becomes all the more apparent. No inquests were listed in December and January, save for 2 inquests ‘held in writing’. In 2022, Section 9C inquests were introduced which allowed some proceedings — that are straightforward and uncontentious — to be held in writing. Island Echo is currently waiting on more than 30 inquests to be held for incidents covered in recent years, which all await an outcome. At the end of 2022, 264 inquests were still open, leaving families waiting for the hearing, compared to 188 in 2021, 195 in 2020 and 107 in 2019. In 2022, a total of 36 inquests were still ongoing 2 years after the procedures were opened — more than double those in 2021 (15) and a considerable increase on 6 in 2020 and 1 in 2019. 
Before the COVID pandemic, the average wait for an inquest was 35 weeks but that grew to 40 weeks in 2020, 56 weeks in 2021 and 63 weeks in 2022. In 2022 Mrs Sumeray said that the Isle of Wight Council had endeavoured to recruit additional staff to support the service and hoped an Assistant Coroner would be appointed so she could run 2 courts to hear outstanding inquests. Almost 2 years on and that still hasn’t happened. A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council – which funds the Coroners Service – told Island Echo back in July:
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Before the COVID pandemic, the average wait for an inquest was 35 weeks but that grew to 40 weeks in 2020, 56 weeks in 2021 and 63 weeks in 2022. In 2022 Mrs Sumeray said that the Isle of Wight Council had endeavoured to recruit additional staff to support the service and hoped an Assistant Coroner would be appointed so she could run 2 courts to hear outstanding inquests. Almost 2 years on and that still hasn’t happened. A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight Council – which funds the Coroners Service – told Island Echo back in July:
“The Senior Coroner and the Council have been in ongoing discussions about the Coroner’s Service requirements, which include funding, adequate Courtroom provision and personnel generally, in the light of the substantial increase in complex Coronial work on the Island, which has impacted the delivery of the service.
The questions the Coroner declined to answer this month were:
- How many inquests have been closed – excluding Section 9C inquests – by the Isle of Wight Coroner in the following years: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023
- How many Section 9C inquests have been closed by the Isle of Wight Coroner in 2022 and 2023.
- How many open inquests does the Isle of Wight Coroner currently have? Of those how many of the deaths are: one year old, two years old, three years old, four years old, five years old and more.
Worldwide there have been millions of excess deaths in the last 2 years
since experimental vaccines have been administered.
The Government are keeping quite!, imagine if people knew the truth.
Oh, so you know the truth of course…
Proper Reserch will soon tell you…go for it gullable david!
Don’t waste your time my friend!
Clearly this woman should be removed from office. Not only is she not doing her job, for which she no doubt gets paid a ridiculously high wage, but she also doesn’t seem to care how people feel and their need for closure. Disgraceful.
There is no good reason why these questions cannot be answered. She is not obliged to answer but could easily do so for the sake of transparency, and to make life easier for people who are going through enough with grief. If the coroner is not performing their duties satisfactorily, you may complain to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. Examples of potential personal misconduct include unreasonable delays in holding an inquest or replying to correspondence. You may also complain direct to the local authority. If you are still dissatisfied after its response you may complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. Coroners are typically paid £85,000 to £145,000 so she is being very paid well to apparently drag her feet.
Apparently the wages for the job are nowhere near what barrister’s can earn… hence; pay peanuts; get monkeys
Easy work if you can get it.
It seems odd that service in a position of such significant power appears to have no apparent oversight or accountability. Clearly this cannot be the case so the why the lack of valid explanation.
It is hard to see how having no cases at all listed for two months, by any reasonable definition, could be seen as being overloaded with complex cases.
I accept that cases take time to prepare before they can be listed but that you would think that at least one case would make it to the hearing stage over that long a period.
Is there no higher power that this can be referred to other than the council who also seem unable to take any action beyond having ongoing discussions that make no difference.
The article states that she “hoped an Assistant Coroner would be appointed” but there is no vacancy for such a post on the Coroners Society website …
The questions in the article do not make much sense as long as there are no figures from other areas to compare with, such as the amount of staff for every Coroner’s office and the number of cases they have to deal with. Waiting times also depend very much on how much background information needs to be acquired to deal appropriately with each case.
May I ask who is responsible for the lack of recruitment of additional staff and an Assistant Coroner?
I think the criticism may be rather unfair. The Isle of Wight is a rather large area for a rather small office. There are elderly people who lived and died alone where inquests are required; there is also a high number of suicides that require a lot of research.
There isn’t a single person whom have to deal with the after life & the families of the loved ones who have passed, that have a single good word to say about this woman. Having listened to her cold hearted manner when communicating with the bereaved, I can say she has zero empathy or sympathy towards those who have suffered a loss. She portrays a couldn’t give a toss attitude, because as she basically states, she doesn’t have to answer to anyone. Which is a despicable attitude for any so called professional to have. Let alone one who is in her position.
Actually, I have had dealings with the Coroner’s office when my husband unexpectedly died. My experience of her and her office staff were quite the opposite of what you describe. They all were very helpful in keeping me informed; they were diligent and rather caring during a fairly difficult investigation. I cannot fault her, in spite of the fact that it did take rather long.
Another public service being let down by the Tories… THEY DON’T CARE!! WAKE UP!