The Chief Coroner, Judge Mark Lucraft QC has taken the unprecedented step of backing a judicial review against his colleague’s decision to apply a ‘cab rank rule’ to burials.
The ‘cab rank’ approach ignores religious concerns for early burial—Jewish and Islamic beliefs require the deceased to be buried on the same day as death or as soon as possible thereafter. Instead, no one burial can be given priority over another.
Judge Lucraft’s name has been added to the legal action, which will be heard by a Divisional Court at the end of this month, and he has publicly criticised the decision, by Senior Coroner for Inner North London, Mary Hassell, as ‘over rigid’, ‘unlawful’ and in breach of Art 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects religious beliefs.
Hassell made the rule change in October 2017. The judicial review is being brought by the Adath Yisroel Burial Society.
However, Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, expressed support for Hassell. He said grieving families had regularly exerted pressure on Hassell’s officers to release bodies, leading her to make the rule change.
In a letter to the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor in January, he said: ‘By prioritising those who give religion as their reason for a quick burial, those who want rapid burials for other reasons are being unfairly treated. I trust you will ensure that the judicial response to this matter is not unduly influenced by those who shout the loudest.’
Doctors report deaths to coroners for various reasons, for example, where the death was sudden and unexplained or violent or where the deceased was not seen by a doctor during their final illness. The coroner may decide a post-mortem is needed to discover the cause of death. After this, if the cause is still unknown, they may hold an inquest.
