The National Health Service Trust (Scrutiny of Deaths) (England) Order 2021

• Citation: S.I. 2021/504
• Sections: 3

Section 1 Citation and commencement

This Order may be cited as the National Health Service Trust (Scrutiny of Deaths) (England) Order 2021 and comes into force on 1st May 2021.

Section 2 Application and extent

This Order extends to England and Wales, and applies only to England.

Section 3 Power to scrutinise deaths

(1) An NHS trust in England may scrutinise the death of any person who has died in England where—

(a) a senior coroner is not under a duty to investigate the death under section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 , or

(b) it is unclear whether the death is one which a registered medical practitioner would be required to notify to the relevant senior coroner under the Notification of Deaths Regulations 2019 .

(2) In paragraph (1), the reference to scrutinising a death is a reference to scrutiny carried out in accordance with “Implementing the medical examiner system: National Medical Examiner’s good practice guidelines”, published by NHS England and NHS Improvement in January 2020 , and includes any review which forms part of the process of scrutinising a death under those guidelines.