Why is a coroner sometimes involved?

Some circumstances require the registrar to report a death to the coroner before it can be registered. Examples of this include:

where there is no doctor who can issue a medical certificate of cause of death
where the person was not seen by the doctor issuing the certificate after he or she had died, or during the 14 days before the death
where the cause of death is unknown
where the cause of death is believed to be unnatural or suspicious
where the death happened during an operation or before recovery from an anaesthetic
where the death is due to industrial disease or industrial poisoning.

The coroner must then decide whether there should be further investigation into the death - and the registrar cannot register the death until the coroner notifies him / her of their decision.