Our impact

“We award (the prize) to INQUEST for its remarkable perseverance, personal commitment and courage in an area too often under-investigated by the public authorities.” 
- Longford Prize judging panel

INQUEST are consulted at a national and international level because of our knowledge and expertise on inquests and post-death investigations. Alongside families, our lawyers group and others, we have achieved improvements in the investigation and inquest processes and the support offered to bereaved people. Some of our achievements include:

• We pushed for the first ever Independent review of deaths and serious incidents in police custody, which was commissioned in 2015 by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May who appointed our director Deborah Coles as special adviser. The final report was published in October 2017 and reflects many of INQUEST's longstanding concerns in its wide reaching recommendations. 
• We have also pushed for, advised on and provided expert evidence to the Corston Report into vulnerable women in prison; the Harris Review on self-inflicted deaths of young people in prison; and the cross-government Care Quality Commission Review into the investigation of NHS deaths, among many others.
• We played an integral role supporting families and their lawyers through the historic new Hillsborough inquests in 2016, which concluded with an unlawful killing finding for the first time and exonerated both survivors and the 96 people who died. We were then involved in the Bishop's review on the experiences of Hillsborough families published October 2017. We are also working with lawyers and MP's for a Hillsborough Law. 
• We lobbied for, influenced and informed the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, and led the successful campaign to safeguard the post of the first Chief Coroner for England and Wales.
• We successfully campaigned for the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 to apply to deaths in custody, meaning that companies and organisations can now be found guilty of corporate manslaughter over deaths in custody.
• Our work led to the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Prisons and Probation Ombudsman in 2004.
• We are represented on the cross-governmental Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody.
• Our work to improve the rights of bereaved people at inquests into contentious deaths led to the use of narrative conclusions at inquests and greater use of coroners’ reports to prevent future deaths. We have used Article 2 of the Human Rights Act to secure more wide-ranging inquests into deaths involving state bodies.
• We have been awarded the Longford Prize (2009) and twice received the Liberty and JUSTICE Human Rights Award for our work uncovering serious human rights abuses of children in custody (2007) and our work with the family of Connor Sparrowhawk and Bindmans Solicitors to improve the standard of care provided for people with mental health and learning disabilities, as pictured (2016).