{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/coroners-act-northern-ireland-1959/section-2",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/coroners-act-northern-ireland-1959/section-2.json",
  "legislation": "apni/1959/15",
  "legislation_title": "Coroners Act (Northern Ireland) 1959",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/coroners-act-northern-ireland-1959",
  "path": "section/2",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "2",
  "heading": "Appointment of coroners, etc.",
  "text": "(1) The Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission may appoint one, or more than one, coroner and deputy coroner for a district or districts on such conditions as to remuneration, superannuation the payment of allowances or otherwise as the Lord Chancellor may determine after consultation with the Treasury.\nSalaries and other amounts payable under this subsection shall be paid by the Department of Justice.\n(1A) The Lord Chief Justice must be consulted before a determination (or a revision of a determination) is made under Part 3 of Schedule 3 to the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 in relation to coroners or deputy coroners.\n(1B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(3) No person, other than a person who is a coroner in Northern Ireland immediately before the coming into force of this Act, shall be appointed a coroner unless he is—\n(a) a member of the Bar of Northern Ireland of at least five years' standing; or\n(b) a solicitor of the Court of Judicature of at least five years' standing.\n(4) Any person who is a coroner immediately before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been appointed a coroner under this Act and to have been appointed for the same district and on the same conditions as immediately before the commencement of this Act.\n(5) A coroner shall not act as solicitor or barrister in proceedings arising out of any matter which may have come before him as coroner. . . ….\n(6) A solicitor or barrister appointed as coroner or deputy coroner under this Act shall not conduct any inquest upon the body of, or hold any inquiry into the death of, any person, if he has drawn up, or assisted in the drawing up of, and is a beneficiary under, any testamentary disposition made by such person.\n(7) A coroner who is a registered medical practitioner shall not conduct any inquest upon the body of, or hold any inquiry into the death of, any person on whom he had, within one month prior to the death of such person, attended in his capacity as such practitioner.",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "S. 2(1) substituted (12.4.2010) by Northern Ireland Act 2009 (c. 3), ss. 2(3), 5(7)(a), Sch. 4 para. 2(2) (with Sch. 5 para. 16); S.I. 2010/812, art. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in s. 2(1) inserted (10.3.2022 for specified purposes, 10.5.2022 in so far as not already in force) by Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 (c. 7), s. 131(1)(4)(b)(ii), Sch. 2 para. 4"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 2(1) inserted (12.4.2010) by Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Devolution of Policing and Justice Functions) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/976), arts. 1(2), 15(5), Sch. 18 para. 100 (with arts. 28-31); S.I. 2010/977, art. 1(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "S. 2(1A)(1B) inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), ss. 15(2), 148(1), Sch. 5 para. 3; S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 para. 12(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Words in s. 2(1A) substituted (12.4.2010) by Northern Ireland Act 2009 (c. 3), ss. 2(3), 5(7)(a), Sch. 4 para. 2(3) (with Sch. 5 para. 16); S.I. 2010/812, art. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F6",
      "text": "S. 2(1B) repealed (1.11.2015) by Legal Aid and Coroners‘ Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (c. 11), ss. 8(3)(a), 12(1), Sch. 3 Pt. 2 (with ss. 2(3), 9, Sch. 1 paras. 3(3)); S.R. 2015/359, art. 2(b)(d)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F7",
      "text": "S. 2(2) repealed (3.4.2006) by Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 (c. 26), ss. 86, 87(1), Sch. 13; S.R. 2006/124, art. 2, Sch. para. 11(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F8",
      "text": "2002 c.26"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F9",
      "text": "Words in s. 2(3)(b) substituted (1.10.2009) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), ss. 59(5), 148(1), Sch. 11 para. 6(1); S.I. 2009/1604, art. 2(d)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F10",
      "text": "SR 1982/192"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F11",
      "text": "1974 NI 6"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/apni/1959/15/section/2",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T21:33:11.088702+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}