Charity boss slams 'reprehensible' health trusts

Health trusts have repeatedly tried to prevent coroners from issuing Prevention of Future Death reports in order to protect their reputations, an inquiry has heard.

Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, told the BBC the "reprehensible" behaviour was a pattern "played out across the country" but was "exemplified" in Essex.

She gave evidence at the Lampard Inquiry, which is looking into the deaths of more than 2,000 people being treated by NHS mental health services in Essex between 2000 and 2023.

In her evidence to the inquiry, Ms Coles said the "lack of candour" on the part of mental health trusts in Essex was the reason a statutory public inquiry needed to be held.

"It's difficult to say how traumatising that is for families when they sit in at an inquest… and then see legal representatives try and effectively stop a coroner from making a Prevention of Future Deaths report, external, which is ultimately about trying to safeguard lives in the future - and I find that reprehensible," she said.

"We are talking here about trying to protect lives and also remember those who've died where those deaths were preventable."

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 13 May 2025