HC Deb 02 July 1974 vol 876 cc135-7W
Mr. Bray

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the number of post mortems carried out in each of the last 15 years under section 21 of the Coroners Act 1887 and

Verdict Year
(1) 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962
(1) Murder … … … … … … … 58 71 50 53 66
(2) Manslaughter … … … … … … 17 21 23 27 19
(3) Infanticide … … … … … … 2 4 2 3 1
(4) Justifiable or excusable homicide … … … — 1 — — 2
(6) Execution of sentence of death … … … 4 6 10 7 3
(6) Suicide … … … … … … … 5,237 5,236 5,119 5,212 5,583
(7) Attempted or self-induced abortion … … … 12 7 12 15 17
(8) Deaths aggravated by lack of care or self-neglect … 54 66 46 39 52
(9) Chronic alcoholism … … … … … 63 90 89 79 85
(10) Addiction to drugs … … … … … 5 4 2 1 4
(11) Want of attention at birth … … … … 41 40 24 35 23
(12) Deaths from industrial diseases … … … 767 737 784 954 914
(13) Deaths by accident or misadventure … … … 15,581 16,042 16,201 15,924 16,298
(14) Stillborn … … … … … … … 30 36 21 19 34
(15) Deaths from natural causes … … … … 2,367 2,279 2,039 1,860 1,853
(16) Open verdicts … … … … … … 1,261 1,365 1,363 1,392 1,393
TOTALS … … … … … … 25,499 26,005 25,785 25,620 26,347

Coroners Amendment Act 1926, showing their percentage in relation to the annual death rate, and the number of post mortems in each year which indicated violent death, industrial accidents, industrial disease, chronic alcoholism, addiction to drugs, lack of care or self neglect, natural causes and causes unknown, respectively.

Dr. Summerskill

The information requested in the first part of the Question in respect of the years 1958–72 is as follows:

Year Number of post-mortem examinations ordered by coroners Number of post-mortem examinations expressed as a percentage of registered deaths
1958 72,499 13.8
1959 75,765 14.4
1960 79,337 15.1
1961 84,558 15.3
1962 90,006 16.1
1963 96,622 16.9
1964 95,465 17.9
1965 101,518 18.5
1966 102,719 18.2
1967 103,282 19.0
1968 109,277 18.9
1969 116,104 20.0
1970 117,392 20.4
1971 117,043 20.6
1972 126,796 21.4

Coroners' returns do not include information about the results of post-mortem examinations. The number of verdicts returned by coroners' courts was as follows:

Verdict Year
(1) 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967
(1) Murder … … … … … … … 60 62 65 55 58
(2) Manslaughter … … … … … … 25 21 28 26 24
(3) Infanticide … … … … … … 2 3 4 3 3
(4) Justifiable or excusable homicide … … … 2 2 — — 2
(5) Execution of sentence of death … … … 2 2 — — —
(6) Suicide … … … … … … … 5,727 5,565 5,187 5,013 4,735
(7) Attempted or self-induced abortion … … … 13 8 16 8 7
(8) Deaths aggravated by lack of care or self-neglect … 71 42 53 75 38
(9) Chronic alcoholism … … … … … 74 83 131 109 122
(10) Addiction to drugs … … … … … 5 8 12 11 16
(11) Want of attention at birth … … … … 39 26 47 31 31
(12) Deaths from industrial diseases … … … 1,012 853 933 882 747
(13) Deaths by accident or misadventure … … … 6,564 16,651 16,596 16,670 15,816
(14) Stillborn … … … … … … … 40 22 27 25 37
(15) Deaths from natural causes … … … … 1,501 1,575 1,507 1,541 1,564
(16) Open verdicts … … … … … … 1,490 1,502 1,447 1,491 1,454
TOTALS … … … … … … 26,627 26,425 26,053 25,940 24,654

Verdict Year
(1) 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972
(1) Murder … … … … … … … 59 42 30 70 35
(2) Manslaughter … … … … … … 28 26 18 28 26
(3) Infanticide … … … … … … 1 2 4 3 3
(4) Justifiable or excusable homicide … … … — — 2 1 1
(5) Execution of sentence of death … … … — — — — —
(6) Suicide … … … … … … … 4,569 4,369 3,964 4,005 3,807
(7) Attempted or self-induced abortion … … … 9 3 1 4 1
(8) Deaths aggravated by lack of care or self-neglect … 47 55 43 49 49
(9) Chronic alcoholism … … … … … 126 123 106 170 165
(10) Addiction to drugs … … … … … 19 37 26 42 64
(11) Want of attention at birth … … … … 29 15 23 17 20
(12) Deaths from industrial diseases … … … 771 783 827 818 862
(13) Deaths by accident or misadventure … … … 15,111 15,520 15,479 15,288 14,571
(14) Stillborn … … … … … … … 23 32 7 19 10
(15) Deaths from natural causes … … … … 1,517 1,563 1,744 1,647 1,744
(16) Open verdicts … … … … … … 1,450 1,602 1,626 1,616 1,695
TOTALS … … … … … … 23,759 24,172 23,900 23,777 23,053