Introduction to the research

Introduction to the research

The Voicing Loss project is a collaboration between the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research at Birkbeck, University of London, and the Centre for Death & Society at the University of Bath. The research was conducted from May 2021 to May 2024, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (grant reference ES/V002732/1).

The research examined the role of bereaved people in coroners’ investigations and inquests, as defined in law and policy and as experienced in practice. It also explored ways in which the inclusion and participation of bereaved people in the process can be better supported.

The core component of the research involved interviews with 89 individuals who had come into contact with the coroner service following the death of someone they were close to. The researchers also interviewed 82 coronial professionals (including coroners, coroners’ officers, lawyers and others) and 19 individuals who had given evidence to an inquest in a professional capacity or supported colleagues who were witnesses. This constitutes the largest ever empirical study of lay and professional experiences of the coronial process in England and Wales.

Many of the study’s key findings, and the research context and methodology, are presented in the papers listed below. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are considered in a series of briefings available here.

Other outputs of Voicing Loss are forthcoming or in preparation, including:

Jacobson, J., Murray, A., Rumble, H. & Templeton, L. (forthcoming, 2024) ‘Coronial investigations: Past deaths and future lives’ in Trabsky, M. and Jones, I. (eds) Routledge Handbook of Death and Law 

Details of further outputs will be provided on this website in due course.

Illustration of two people holding hands and a long dark shadow extending from their feet
194,999
deaths reported to the coroner in 2023
34%
of all registered deaths reported to coroners in 2023
36,855
Inquests opened by coroners in 2023
569
Prevention of Future Deaths reports issued by coroners in 2023

Ministry of Justice Coroners Statistics 2023: England and Wales, updated 10 May 2024

Research papers

We have produced a summary of key findings of the Voicing Loss research, three thematic papers, and an outline of the research context – including the existing knowledge base – and methodology. We hope that our research papers will be of interest to anyone who has personal, professional or academic involvement in the coroner service or wants to know more about it.

Voicing Loss Findings Summary:

‘I feel like I’ve been swept along on a tsunami’

Summary of key themes to have emerged from the research, focusing on the impacts of the coronial process on the bereaved respondents and the factors shaping positive and negative perceptions of the process.
Research Findings No. 1:

‘I needed more than answers'

Exploration of the apparent mismatch between bereaved people’s expectations of the coronial process – in terms of answers, prevention of future deaths, and justice and accountability – and what, in practice, it tends to deliver.
Research Findings No. 2:

‘Playing a game you didn’t fully understand, by their rules’

Lay and professional perspectives on whether bereaved people should be ‘at the heart’ of the coronial process, the extent to which this is achieved, and barriers to its achievement.
Research Findings No. 3:

‘The more traumatic inquests stick with you forever. But you can remember them all’

The reported experiences of individuals who have given evidence to a coroner’s investigation in a professional capacity or supported colleagues who were witnesses – including police and prison staff, health practitioners and others.
Background

Research context and methodology

An outline of the policy context and aims of the Voicing Loss research; the existing knowledge base on which the work has drawn; the study methodology; and the composition of the respondent samples.
INQUEST: Family Listening Day report

INQUEST Family Listening Day

The charity INQUEST was commissioned by the Voicing Loss project to run a Family Listening Day, which explored bereaved people’s experiences of inquests into deaths in police custody or prison. The report from this event can be found on the INQUEST website.

The research team

Professor Jessica Jacobson
Professor Jessica Jacobson

j.jacobson@bbk.ac.uk

Jessica is Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck, University of London. As ICPR’s Director, Jessica oversees the institute’s wide-ranging programme of academically-grounded, policy-oriented research on many aspects of the justice system. Jessica is Principal Investigator on the Voicing Loss project.

Dr Alexandra Murray
Dr Alexandra Murray

alex.murray@bbk.ac.uk

Alex is a Research Fellow at ICPR, Birkbeck, where she is working on studies on the coronial process (Voicing Loss) and online fraud. She was awarded her PhD in in 2022, for research on the subject of invisible disabilities in the Personal Independence Payment assessment and appeal process.

Lorna Templeton
Lorna Templeton

l.templeton@bath.ac.uk

Lorna’s research career spans over 25 years, with national and international work covering the impact of substance use and gambling behaviours on children and families, bereavement through substance use, end of life and substance use, and as a researcher on the Voicing Loss team. Lorna helped to set up AFINet, the Addiction and the Family International Network. She publishes her work widely.

Acknowledgements

A great many individuals and organisations have made the Voicing Loss project possible. From the very outset of the work, we have been moved by the enormously high levels of support and assistance we have received. This, we believe, demonstrates the importance of the subject matter and the pressing need for research-informed change. 

We extend heartfelt thanks to all our bereaved, professional and witness interviewees who were generous both with their time and with what they shared with us. The success of this research has been entirely dependent on the willingness of the interviewees to be open, honest and reflective in speaking to us about highly sensitive matters. We would also like to thank those interviewees who assisted with recruitment of further research participants.

We are grateful to all those who authored pieces for the Expert Insights section of this website.

We thank the former members of the Voicing Loss project team for their valuable contributions to the project: Penny Cooper (Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London), Dr Camillia Kong (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Hannah Rumble (CDAS, University of Bath). 

We thank the Economic and Social Research Council for their generous funding of Voicing Loss (project reference ES/V002732/1).

We are grateful for the support and encouragement offered by HHJ Thomas Teague KC who was Chief Coroner throughout the study period. We appreciate the help provided by James Parker, former Head of the Chief Coroner’s Office (now at the Ministry of Justice) and his successor, Giselle Terry. We would also like to thank a number of coroners’ courts which assisted with recruitment of research participants.

We also much appreciate the support provided by Heather Atkinson and her colleagues in the Coroners, Inquests and Inquiries policy team at the Ministry of Justice.

INQUEST has provided extensive help and support to the project, in the form of advice, conducting a Family Listening Day and follow-up event, taking part in interviews, and supporting recruitment of interviewees. We wish to thank, in particular, Deborah Coles (Executive Director), Rosanna Ellul (Policy and Parliamentary Manager), Anita Sharma (Head of Casework)), Jodie Anderson (Senior Caseworker) and Chris Tully (Consultant).

We would like to thank the Coroners’ Courts Support Service for assisting the project – including by participating in interviews and supporting recruitment of other interviewees. In particular, we are grateful to Beverley Radcliffe (former CEO), Angela Geer (CEO) and Sandra Weldon (Operations and Training Manager). 

Other individuals who have been generous in offering support and advice, and commenting on draft documents, include:

  • Mike Hough, Emeritus Professor, Birkbeck University of London
  • Imogen Jones, Associate Professor in Law, University of Leeds
  • George Julian, knowledge transfer consultant and journalist
  • Nicola Lester, Psychological Trauma Consultant
  • Millie Tamworth, PhD student, University College London

We are also grateful for the support from ICPR staff at Birkbeck – in particular, Helen Fair, Gillian Hunter and Amy Kirby; and from everyone at CDAS, University of Bath – in particular, CDAS co-director Kate Woodthorpe. 

We are very grateful for the help – most notably with interviewee recruitment – offered by a large number of other individuals and organisations: 

  • Addiction Family Support (formerly DrugFAM)
  • Adfam
  • Collective Voice
  • Erica Borgstrom, Open University
  • Brake
  • Bristol Drugs Project
  • Peter Cartwright, Independent Counsellor and Trainer
  • The Centre for Military Justice
  • Childhood Bereavement Alliance
  • The Compassionate Friends
  • Cruse Bereavement Support
  • Drugwise Daily
  • The Forward Trust
  • Gambling with Lives
  • HMP Parc
  • National Bereavement Alliance
  • NHS Resolution
  • Adele Owen, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership
  • SAMM (Support after Murder and Manslaughter)
  • Sands
  • Support After Suicide Partnership
  • Turning Point
  • Veterans and Families Research Hub
  • War Widows Association