Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wellington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
9 August 2024
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #27449 email]
Our ref: OIA 113666
Tēnā koe Chris
Official Information Act request: Coroners Court case statistics
Thank you for your email of 1 July 2024 requesting statistical information about Coroners
Court cases under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
On 29 July 2024, the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) wrote to you to advise that it had
decided to grant your request with some further time required to prepare the information for
release. Thank you for your patience while the Ministry has prepared the information in
response to your request.
Please find your requests, and responses, set out below.
1. From 2015 - 2023 and to include the half-yearly numbers in 2024 can you please
provide Total Number of Cases Referred to the Coroner
The Ministry has interpreted 'cases referred to the coroner' to be those cases where the
coroner has accepted jurisdiction of the death in accordance with the Coroners Act 2006. In
response to this part of your request please see Table 1, attached, which provides the
number of new cases accepted into the Coroners Court jurisdiction, by year, from 1 January
2015 to 30 June 2024. This data includes active and closed cases. Active cases are those
currently under investigation by the coroner. Closed cases have been heard by the coroner
and findings have been issued.
2. Of the above cases can you split this into Total Number of Cases Investigated
3. Total Number of Cases whereby it was Notified of Coroner's Decision not to open
inquiry
In response to questions 2 and 3 of your request, the Ministry has interpreted Coroners
Court cases investigated to be inquiry cases and non-investigated to be cases where no
inquiry was opened (non-inquiry cases).
I am advised the Ministry initially believed that the information in response to your first
request, could be broken down to respond to parts 2 and 3 of your request. However, when
further progressing the request, the Ministry identified that information in part 1 of your
request is not broken down into the level of detail you have requested in parts 2 and 3 of
your request as a part of regular reporting.
Table 1 provides information on both active and closed cases. The Ministry does not report
on active inquiry cases and non-inquiry cases due to the way Coroners Court cases
progress. This is because a coroner may decide whether to open and conduct an inquiry
sometime after the death occurred. In addition, due to the way a coroner’s decision not to
open inquiry is recorded in the Case Management System used by the Coroners Court, non-
inquiry cases may not be recorded until the case is closed. The Ministry therefore does not
hold the information requested and these parts of your request are refused under section
18(g)(i) of the Act as there are no grounds for believing that the information is held by
another department, Minister of the Crown, organisation, or local authority subject to the Act.
I apologise that this was not communicated to you sooner.
The Ministry does hold information on the number of Coroners Court non-inquiry and inquiry
cases, closed by the coroner in the period 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2024. This information
is provided to you in Table 2, attached. The data in Table 2 is counted based on the year the
case was closed by the coroner, which can be different to the date the case is notified to the
coroner, or the date of death. As such, the data contained in Table 2 is not comparable to
the data in Table 1.
4. Can you also provide number of active Coronial cases per month, per year since 2015
until todays date Average age in days to complete the cases?
In response to these parts of your request, please see Tables 3 and 4, attached:
• Table 3 provides the number of active Coroners Court cases, by month, from 1
January 2015 to 30 June 2024.
• Table 4 provides the average age, in days, of Coroners Court cases closed in the 12
month periods ending January 2015 to June 2024.
If you require any further information, please contact Media & Social Media Manager Joe
Locke at [email address].
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at: justice.govt.nz/about/official-information-act-requests/oia-responses/.
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be
contacted by email to [email address] or by phone on 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Jacquelyn Shannon
Group Manager, Courts and Tribunals, Regional Service Delivery
Table 1: Number of new cases accepted into Coroners Court jurisdiction, by calendar year, from 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2024
Type
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
*2024
Cases
3,336
3,365
3,556
3,583
3,850
3,507
3,591
3,864
3,807
1,699
Notes for Table 1:
• This data may differ from previously released or published data and was extracted from the Case Management System used by the
Coroners Court on 17 July 2024.
• This data includes only Coroners Court cases, which are cases where the coroner accepts jurisdiction for the death. This data excludes
advice cases, which are those where the coroner declines jurisdiction and a doctor certifies the death.
• Cases are included based on the date the case was notified to the coroner, which can differ from the date of death.
• This data includes active and closed cases. Active cases are those currently under investigation by the coroner. Closed cases have been
heard by the coroner and findings have been issued.
• This data is counted by calendar year.
• *2024 is a partial year covering 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024.
Table 2: Number of Coroners Court non-inquiry, inquiry, and ‘other’ cases, closed by the coroner, by calendar year, from 1 January
2015 to 30 June 2024
Type
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
*2024
Non-inquiry cases
1,863
1,719
1,860
1,944
1,967
1,766
2,041
1,993
2,193
1,065
Inquiry cases
1,164
1,131
1,030
1,094
996
1,095
1,213
1,039
1,389
1,009
Other
191
189
155
205
170
187
167
150
164
81
Notes for Table 2: • This data may differ from previously released or published data and was extracted from the Case Management System used by the
Coroners Court on 17 July 2024.
• This data includes only Coroners Court cases, which are cases where the coroner accepts jurisdiction for the death. This data excludes
advice cases, which are those where the coroner declines jurisdiction, and a doctor certifies the death.
• This data includes only closed cases, which have been heard by the coroner and findings have been issued.
• Cases are included based on the date the case was closed by the coroner, which can differ from the date the findings were issued.
• Cases with non-inquiry issued refers to cases where a COR2 (non-inquiry) certificate of findings was issued.
• Cases with inquiry refers to cases where a COR7 (inquiry) certificate of findings was issued.
• Other refers to cases where a COR9 (criminal investigation) or COR10 (other investigation) certificate of findings was issued. COR9
certificate of findings are issued by the coroner when an inquiry will not be opened or resumed, because the inquiry has been dealt by
prosecution criminal proceedings. COR10 certificate of findings are issued by the coroner when an inquiry will not be opened or resumed
because the inquiry has been dealt by another agency, for example the Health and Disability Commissioner, or the Transport Accident
Investigation Commission.
• This data is counted by calendar year.
• *2024 is a partial year covering 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024.
Table 3: Number of active Coroners Court cases, by month, from 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2024
Year
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
2015
2,934
2,948
3,027
3,101
3,121
3,164
3,117
3,168
3,084
3,067
3,104
3,032
2016
3,027
3,043
3,077
3,127
3,133
3,188
3,267
3,277
3,280
3,293
3,311
3,421
2017
3,469
3,555
3,517
3,618
3,618
3,636
3,692
3,769
3,754
3,795
3,810
3,878
2018
3,973
3,966
3,997
4,042
4,051
4,105
4,155
4,173
4,244
4,276
4,210
4,227
2019
4,325
4,360
4,533
4,554
4,526
4,655
4,562
4,580
4,677
4,744
4,829
4,939
2020
4,982
4,966
5,099
5,279
5,247
5,241
5,282
5,237
5,208
5,224
5,277
5,380
2021
5,407
5,441
5,458
5,485
5,555
5,518
5,524
5,559
5,551
5,513
5,506
5,539
2022
5,658
5,771
5,824
5,973
6,059
6,154
6,123
6,107
6,120
6,112
6,125
6,230
2023
6,384
6,451
6,407
6,472
6,498
6,528
6,544
6,404
6,302
6,274
6,190
6,216
2024
6,192
6,043
5,964
5,933
5,847
5,858
-
-
-
-
-
-
Notes for Table 3:
• This data may differ from previously released or published data and was extracted from the Case Management System used by the
Coroners Court on 17 July 2024.
• This data includes only Coroners Court cases, which are cases where the coroner accepts jurisdiction for the death. This data excludes
advice cases, which are those where the coroner declines jurisdiction, and a doctor certifies the death.
• Example interpretation: At the end of January 2024, there were 6,192 active Coroners Court cases.
• This data is counted by calendar year.
• 2024 is a partial year covering 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024.
Table 4: Average age, in days, of Coroners Court cases closed in the periods ending 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2024
Year
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2015
361
358
332
333
334
337
333
328
328
319
318
316
2016
320
322
323
317
316
312
308
310
310
313
310
309
2017
307
303
304
307
308
312
325
325
322
320
324
324
2018
325
335
340
344
346
346
341
341
343
348
346
349
2019
354
347
344
339
342
342
342
338
343
347
349
347
2020
352
352
352
357
356
381
400
420
434
448
457
466
2021
464
476
490
488
492
477
471
479
476
473
477
479
2022
489
493
493
494
497
498
503
500
499
488
487
492
2023
488
491
487
488
495
495
499
499
508
527
536
551
2024
556
574
588
596
602
611
-
-
-
-
-
-
Notes for Table 4:
• This data may differ from previously released or published data and was extracted from the Case Management System used by the
Coroners Court on 17 July 2024.
• This data includes only Coroners Court cases, which are cases where the coroner accepts jurisdiction for the death. This data excludes
advice cases, which are those where the coroner declines jurisdiction, and a doctor certifies the death.
• Average completed time represents the active days between the date the death was notified to the coroner and the date the final findings
were issued.
• Example interpretation: In the 12 months ending January 2024, the average age of Coroners Court cases at the date final findings were
issued was 556 days.
• 2024 is a partial year covering 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024.
