Duties of a coroner
The duties are to:
- investigate circumstances of deaths if violent, unnatural or unknown cause
- decide whether a Post Mortem examination is necessary
- hold an inquest and notify the Registrar of Deaths of the findings
Senior Coroner for the Bedfordshire and Luton area
The Senior Coroner for the Bedfordshire and Luton area is Emma Whitting.
Assistant Coroners for the Bedfordshire and Luton area
The Assistant Coroners are:
- Dr Sean Cummings
- Aliya Rashid
- Tom Stoate
- Amy Street
Contact us
Telephone: 0300 300 8383
Email: coroner.service@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Emergency out of hours contact
Telephone: 07388 372280
Opening hours
Office: 8am until 4pm, Monday to Friday
Court: 9:15am until 4:30pm, Tuesday to Thursday
Where we are based
The Bedfordshire and Luton Coroner Service is located at:
The Court House
Woburn Street
Ampthill
Bedfordshire
MK45 2HX
The Bedfordshire and Luton Coroner Service
You can view the current inquests due to be held by the Bedfordshire and Luton Coroner Service in the table below.
Beneath the inquest information, you can find out more about our service, our duties and who the coroner is. In addition, you will find information on bereavement support and support with deaths in custody.
How to search for information
You will need to add in a date range to view inquests. For example, the enquiry from date could be today's date and the enquiry to date could be 31/12/2023. Once you do that, you can view inquests in that date range. You can then also search by surname.
At the bottom of this page there is a feedback button. Please use this if you feel the information appearing is incorrect.
| Date | Time | Inquest | Name | Age and place of death | Coroner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04-10-2023 | 10:00 | Paper Inquest | Peter George BARBER | 87 years, Luton | Sean CUMMINGS |
| 05-10-2023 | 10:00 | Fast track hearing | Margaret Elizabeth ETCHES | 88 years, Bedford | Emma WHITTING |
| 05-10-2023 | 14:00 | Case Inquest Hearing | Haroon ARMANI | 18 years, Bedford | Emma WHITTING |
| 05-10-2023 | 15:30 | Police Update Hearing | Vivienne Mary OKOROAFOR | 79 years, Cambridge | Emma WHITTING |
| 10-10-2023 | 10:00 | Fast track hearing | Hazel Margaret GOOKEY | 86 years, Luton | Aliya RASHID |
| 10-10-2023 | 11:00 | Fast track hearing | Vickie FENN | 76 years, Cambridge | Aliya RASHID |
| 10-10-2023 | 12:00 | Fast track hearing | Alvin Robert HALSEY | 85 years, Luton | Emma WHITTING |
| 10-10-2023 | 14:00 | Case Inquest Hearing | Tomasz KORNACKI | 32 years, Bedford | Aliya RASHID |
| 10-10-2023 | 16:00 | Fast track hearing | Coral GILLILAND | 68 years, Letchworth Garden City | Aliya RASHID |
| 11-10-2023 | 09:00 | Inquest Opening | Omar KHAN | 38 years | Emma WHITTING |
Press attendance
Members of the press can attend inquests in person or via video link. Please email coroner.service@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk at least 24 hours in advance of the inquest you wish to attend.
A guide to coroner services
The Ministry of Justice has published its Guide to coroner services.
The guide provides bereaved people with an explanation of the coroner investigation and inquest process as well as links to other organisations that may also provide help and advice. Whilst the guide is focused on bereaved people, it will also be useful for others, including other interested persons and witnesses as well as members of the public who want to understand coroner processes.
There's lots of bereavement support available through many support agencies.
Contact an agency to talk about the support you need.
Support is available, for those affected by a death in custody, from the charity INQUEST.
INQUEST provides expertise on state-related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians.
Its specialist casework includes deaths:
- in police and prison custody
- in immigration detention
- in mental health settings
- involving multi-agency failings or where wider issues of state and corporate accountability are in question
Visit INQUEST's website to find out how it can help
What a death in custody is
When a death happened in prison, police custody or other state detention, there must be an inquest. Other state detention can include being held under the Mental Health Act 1983.
In cases where the state or public body might have had obligations relating to the circumstances around a death, including where a person has died in police custody or in prison, the inquest may become what is known as an ‘Article 2’ inquest.
This refers to the state’s obligations to protect life under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The inquest process is likely to look and feel the same as other inquests, but the coroner or jury will be required to investigate more widely into some of the factual circumstances of the death.