Coronial Data Collection
The underlying objective of New Zealand’s coronial system is to identify practices that have cost human lives and then to modify or eliminate them.
In order to achieve this, consistent coronial practices and accurate statistics relevant to external causes of death are fundamental to the development of effective regional and national injury prevention strategies.
The Case Management System (CMS) is a national internet based data storage and retrieval system for New Zealand coronial cases. Information about every death reported to a Coroner since July 1 2007 is stored within the system, providing a valuable hazard identification and death prevention tool for Coroners, government agencies and injury prevention researchers.
CMS has a primary role to assist coroners in their role as death investigators, by providing them with the ability to review previous coronial cases that may be similar in nature to current investigations, enhancing their ability to identify and address systematic hazards within the community.
Research and government agencies also utilise the coronial data available in CMS to obtain valuable information concerning the circumstances of reported fatalities, to assist in the development of community health and safety strategies.
CMS is a result of recommendations made by the Law Commission in their report into New Zealand’s Coronial System in 2000. The Law Commission proposed that a national coronial record keeping system be established for:
- Injury prevention and hazard identification
- The production of more accurate and timely statistics on causes of death
- Helping Coroners to standardise their investigations
- Monitoring the death certification process
The link below provides information about New Zealand injury data:
