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# NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND 

# 2021 No. 504 

The National Health Service Trust (Scrutiny of Deaths) (England) Order 2021 

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The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care makes the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by paragraph 22 of Schedule 4 to the National Health Service Act 2006( a ). 

## Citation and commencement 

1.  This Order may be cited as the National Health Service Trust (Scrutiny of Deaths) (England) Order 2021 and comes into force on 1st May 2021. 

## Application and extent 

2.  This Order extends to England and Wales, and applies only to England. 

## Power to scrutinise deaths 

3. —(1) An NHS trust in England may scrutinise the death of any person who has died in England where— 

(a) a senior coroner is not under a duty to investigate the death under section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009( b ), or 

(b) it is unclear whether the death is one which a registered medical practitioner would be required to notify to the relevant senior coroner under the Notification of Deaths Regulations 2019( c ). 

(2) In paragraph (1), the reference to scrutinising a death is a reference to scrutiny carried out in accordance with “Implementing the medical examiner system: National Medical Examiner’s good practice guidelines”, published by NHS England and NHS Improvement in January 2020( d ), and includes any review which forms part of the process of scrutinising a death under those guidelines. 

Signed by the authority of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. 

