made under this section, continue to be payable A.D. 1926. (c) the salary of a borough coroner shall in default 6. (1) Upon the retirement of any county or Superborough coroner after not less than five years service, annuation 10 the council by whom his salary is payable shall have of county and borough 15 power (a) if he has attained the age of sixty-five years; or (b) if they are satisfied by means of a medical to grant to him a pension of such amount as may be 20 agreed upon between him and the council not exceeding the scale contained in the First Schedule to this Act: Provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply with respect to any coroner holding office at the date of the commencement of this Act unless upon his 25 application a resolution applying those provisions to him is passed by the council by whom his salary is payable. (2) A county or borough coroner with respect to whom the provisions of this section apply shall at any time after he has completed fifteen years service and 30 has attained the age of sixty-five years, vacate his office if called upon to do so by the council by whom his salary is payable, but shall, in the absence of agreement to the contrary, in that case be entitled to receive the maximum pension which the council is empowered 35 having regard to the length of his service to grant to him under this section. 1 (3) For the purposes of this section the expression "service" means service, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, as a coroner in the county coroners. A.D. 1926. or borough of the council by whom the pension is payable. Payment of pensions. 7. The salary of a county or borough coroner salaries and and any pension payable to a person in respect of his service as a coroner, shall be deemed to accrue from day 5 to day, and, in the absence of agreement to the contrary, shall be payable quarterly. Expenses of local authorities upon salaries and pensions. Amendment of 55 & 56 Vict. c. 56. 8. 1 (3). Appointment of deputy by coroner of King's household. Appointment of assistant deputy coroner. 8. All expenses incurred under this Act by a council upon the salary or pension payable in respect of a county coroner shall be defrayed as expenses for special county 10 purposes, and all expenses so incurred upon the salary or pension payable in respect of a borough coroner shall be defrayed out of the borough fund. Deputy Coroners and Assistant Deputy Coroners. 9. So much of subsection (3) of section one of the 15 Coroners Act, 1892, as requires the necessity of a deputy coroner's acting for a borough coroner to be certified by a justice of the peace shall cease to have effect. 10. The Coroners Act, 1892 (which relates to the appointment and powers of deputy coroners) shall apply 20 with the necessary modifications to the coroner of the King's household as it applies to county and borough coroners, and in particular with the modifications that the appointment of a deputy to the coroner of the King's household shall be subject to the approval of the 25 Lord Steward of the King's household, and duplicates of such appointments shall be sent to and kept by him. 11.-(1) Any county or borough coroner may, in addition to the deputy whom he is required to appoint under section one of the Coroners Act, 1892, appoint an 30 assistant deputy to act for the coroner. (2) An assistant deputy may act for the coroner on any occasion when the deputy coroner would be entitled to act for the coroner but is unable so to act owing to illness or absence for any reasonable cause, and, in the 35 event of the coroner vacating his office by death or otherwise, may act for the deputy coroner in like manner while the office of coroner is vacant. (3) The appointment of an assistant deputy shall be made in the like manner and subject to the like approval 40 as the appointment of a deputy coroner, and shall be A.D. 1926. revocable at any time by the coroner by writing under his hand duplicates of any such appointment or revocation shall be sent to and preserved by the council 5 who appointed the coroner in like manner as duplicates of the appointment of a deputy coroner. (4) Subsection (5) of the said section one of the Coroners Act, 1892, shall apply as respects any inquest or act which an assistant deputy of a coroner is autho10 rised to hold or do, with the substitution of a reference to an assistant deputy for the reference to a deputy. Coroners' Districts. tion of 12.-(1) A county council may at any time, and Formation shall if directed to do so by the Secretary of State, and altera. 15 submit, after complying with such requirements as to notice and consideration of objections as may county be coroners' prescribed, to the Secretary of State a draft order pro- districts. viding for the division of the county into such coroners' districts as they think expedient, or for such alteration of 20 any existing division of the county into coroners' districts as appears to them to be suitable; and the Secretary of State after taking into consideration any objections to the draft made in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, may make the order, either in the terms of the draft submitted to him or with such modifications as he thinks fit. 25 (2) Every order made under this section shall come into force as from such date as may be specified in the order, and may be varied or revoked by any subsequent 30 order made in like manner. (3) If by reason of any order made under this section it is in the opinion of the Secretary of State necessary that the number of coroners for a county should be increased, the county council shall appoint 35 such number of additional coroners for the county as the Secretary of State may direct, and the provisions of this Act relating to appointments to the office of county coroner shall apply with respect to any such appointment as if a vacancy had occurred in the office 40 of coroner for that county. (4) Sections five, nineteen and twenty of the Coroners Act, 1844 (which relate to the assignment of A.D. 1926. districts to county coroners and to the residence and jurisdiction of county coroners within counties assigned to them) shall, as amended by any subsequent enactment, apply to districts formed or altered and to coroners appointed under this Act as they apply to districts 5 formed under that Act and to coroners appointed under writs de coronatore eligendo. Power to hold inquest without a jury in certain cases. (5) Every order made under this section shall be laid as soon as may be before both Houses of Parliament and shall be published in the London 10 Gazette, and particulars of any order so made shall be published by the county council in such manner as may be prescribed. (6) Section one of the Rules Publication Act, 1893, shall not apply to any order made under this section. 15 (7) In this section the expression "prescribed means prescribed by the Secretary of State either by general rules or by directions given as respects any particular occasion. 13.-(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a coroner within whose jurisdiction the dead body of a person is lying, may, in lieu of summoning a jury in the manner required by section three of the Coroners Act, 1887, for the purpose of inquiring into the death of that 25 person, hold an inquest on the body without a jury. (2) If it appears to the coroner either before he proceeds to hold an inquest or in the course of an inquest begun without a jury, that there is reason to suspect (a) that the deceased came by his death by murder, manslaughter or infanticide; or 30 (b) that the death occurred in prison or in such (c) that the death was caused by an accident, 5 (d) that the death was caused by an accident A.D, 1926. (e) that the death occurred in circumstances the he shall proceed to summon a jury in the manner required by the Coroners Act, 1887, and in any other case, if it 10 appears to him, either before he proceeds to hold an inquest or in the course of an inquest begun without a jury, that there is any reason for summoning a jury, he may proceed to summon a jury in the manner aforesaid. 15 (3) The provisions of any enactment relating to the procedure in connection with an inquest shall, as respects an inquest or any part of an inquest which is held without a jury, have effect subject to such modifications as are rendered necessary by the absence of a jury, and 20 where the whole of an inquest is held without a jury the inquisition shall be under the hand of the coroner alone. (4) Where an inquest or any part of an inquest is held without a jury, anything done at the inquest, or at that part of the inquest, by or before the coroner alone 25 shall be as validly done as if it had been done by or before the coroner and a jury. 14. (1) At or before the first sitting of an inquest View of the on a body the coroner shall view the body, and if before body and burial order. the body has been buried the coroner so directs, or a 30 majority of the jury so desires, the body shall be viewed by the jury also: Provided that where a previous inquest on the body has been begun but not completed it shall not be obligatory upon the coroner holding a subsequent inquest 35 to view the body. (2) Subject to the provisions of any rules made under this Act an order of a coroner authorising the burial of a body upon which he has decided to hold an inquest may be issued at any time after he has viewed 40 the body. 15.-(1) If the jury at an inquest fails to agree Failure o on a verdict, and the minority consists of not more jury to than two, the coroner may accept the verdict of agree. |