Help and advice

“What families want is effective change so others don’t die because of the same failings. The involvement and support of INQUEST brings all this together. I have a lifelong loyalty to INQUEST. They provide you with support you just can’t get from anywhere else.”

- Bereaved brother

*INQUEST is currently running a reduced casework service. We will respond enquiries but please note our advice may be limited.*

We provide free and independent advice to bereaved people following a death in state care or detention in England and Wales, and in other cases where wider issues of state and corporate accountability are in question. We also provide support through the inquest process. Our specialist casework covers deaths that occur in:

• prison (including Young Offender Institutions and Secure Training Centres)
• police custody or following police contact
• immigration detention
• mental health settings
• public disasters such as Grenfell Tower and Hillsborough
• deaths involving multi-agency failings 

Please be aware that some cases will fall outside of our remit, due to capacity issues or lack of specific expertise.

Read what families say about us and about our wider work for more information.

Contact us

Please note: INQUEST casework service will be closed to new enquires from Monday 12 August and will reopen on Monday 19 August. We will respond to all queries on or after Monday 19 August.

If you are looking for help and advice after losing a friend or relative in the circumstances listed above, you can get in touch by: 

• filling in the contact form here.
• calling us on 020 7263 1111 (Press Option 1 - Lines are open for new queries on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10am to 5pm. For urgent queries you can leave a message with your contact details, and we will respond as soon as we can.)
• writing to us at: Casework, 3rd Floor, 89-93 Fonthill Road, London N4 3JH

We aim to respond to each enquiry as soon as possible, but due to limited capacity and the high number of enquiries, it can take up to two weeks for a caseworker to get back to you. In the meantime, you may find the answers to some of your questions on the Useful Resources page, and if you leave an address we can send you a hard copy of the INQUEST Handbook immediately. 

Regrettably, we do not currently have the resources to provide advice on deaths that do not involve the circumstances listed above. If your case falls outside these areas, you may find information about other organisations that can help in Other sources of support.

Use of personal information
By submitting my information:

• INQUEST will record the information provided (such as name, telephone numbers, email and postal addresses, name of relative etc) for the purpose of the services it provides, including support and advice.
• For full information on the use of personal information, on how the security of information is maintained, on rights to access, amend or withhold information, or on the ways to complain on how information is handled, the full privacy statement can be found here.