Post-Mortems: Children

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many post mortem examinations on children aged between five and 15 were not carried out by paediatric pathologists in each coroner's district in each of the last five years. (184749)

I have been asked to reply.

The information is not available in the format requested. The Office of National Statistics collects data on the deaths of children in England aged between five and 15 years where a post mortem examination has been carried out. It is not broken down by coroner's district. The information available is shown in the following table.

*Death registrations in England by post mortem type, ages 5 to 15. Data from the Office of National Statistics*
	Post mortem authorised by a coroner	Post mortem authorised by a doctor	Not known by whom post mortem authorised
2006	493	22	4
2005	533	18	5
2004	507	18	1
2003	579	19	2
2002	571	25	4

Information is not collected centrally on how many of those post mortem examinations were carried out by paediatric pathologists.

Volume 472: debated on Monday 25 February 2008