“The Coroners’ Act, 1887, did little more than codify the principal features of the law and practice of coroners, which had become confused and complicated by numerous statutes dating from the reign of Edward I. In 1893 a Select Committee was appointed to ‘inquire into the sufficiency of the existing law as to the disposal of the dead, for securing an accurate record of the causes of death in all cases, and especially for detecting them where death may have been due to poison, violence, or criminal neglect.’ The report of that committee indicated the urgent necessity for reform. The Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration which sat in 1903 also directed attention in their report (_vide_ Bill) to the dangers incidental to the defects in the law relative to the registration and certification of deaths and recommended the registration of still births. “The law relating to coroners is not adapted to modern necessities; its administration is costly to local authorities without securing efficiency in results. “In December, 1908, a Departmental Committee of the Home Office was appointed to inquire into the law relating to coroners and coroners’ inquests, and into the practice in coroners’ courts. “The provisions of this Bill are intended to give effect to many of the recommendations of the Departmental Committee of 1908, and of the Death Certification Committee of 1893. “The report of the Departmental Committee drew attention to anomalies existing in the appointment of coroners in certain ‘franchise districts’ in the qualifications required of coroners, the conditions of their appointment, the mode of their remuneration, the provision of deputies, the areas of jurisdiction, etc. “The law does not at present contemplate inquiry by a coroner except in view of a subsequent formal inquest, nor can he order a _post mortem_ examination except in a case of inquest. The coroner’s officer, to whom important duties are confided, is an official unknown to the law. The viewing of the body by the jury is still compulsory, though no longer deemed necessary in all cases. Attention was also directed by the Committee of 1908 to the need for better provision in regard to skilled medical investigators and to the remuneration of medical witnesses. “The Departmental Committee recall the findings of the Select Committee on Death Certification of 1893, which have not hitherto been the subject of legislation, as bearing directly on the functions of the coroner. Thus at present the law does not require a certificate of death to _certify as to the fact of death_,[7] or as to the identity of the deceased, but merely the cause of death. They further state that ‘it is no fault of the law if premature burials do not take place. _The present law of death certification offers every opportunity for premature burial and every facility for concealment of crime._’”[7]