A coroner is an independent judicial office holder who works within a legal framework established by an act of Parliament, acting on behalf of the Crown to investigate the cause and circumstances of violent or unnatural deaths, or sudden deaths of an unknown cause.
Most coroners are lawyers rather than doctors, although members of either profession can be appointed.
Coroners are appointed by, and paid via, the local authority for their district, but they are not local authority employees, and are independent of both local and central government.
The Senior Coroner for the West Sussex jurisdiction is Penelope Schofield and she will have conduct of this inquest.
Penelope Schofield