Coroners Act 1996 (WA)

Western Australia

Western Australia

Coroners Act 1996

An Act to establish the office of State Coroner, to provide for a State coronial system to inquire into Western Australian deaths, to repeal the Coroners Act 1920 1, to amend certain other Acts and for related purposes.

This Act may be cited as the Coroners Act 1996.

This Act comes into operation on such day as is fixed by proclamation.

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears — 

agency has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of the Public Sector Management Act 1994;

coroner includes the State Coroner and the Deputy State Coroner;

coroner’s investigator means a person referred to in section 14;

coroner’s registrar means a person referred to in section 12;

court means the Coroner’s Court of Western Australia established under section 5;

death includes suspected death;

Deputy State Coroner means the person appointed under section 7;

Director of Public Prosecutions means the Director of Public Prosecutions appointed under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1991;

doctor means a person registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Western Australia) in the medical profession;

guidelines means guidelines issued under section 58;

inquest means a formal hearing by the court;

investigation includes an inquest;

pathologist means a doctor with a prescribed qualification in pathology, or a doctor recognized by a prescribed professional body as a pathologist;

person held in care means — 

• (a)

  a person under, or escaping from, the control, care or custody of — 

• (i)

  the CEO as defined in section 3 of the Children and Community Services Act 2004; or

• (ii)

  the Chief Executive Officer of the department of the Public Service principally assisting the Minister administering the Prisons Act 1981 in its administration; or

• (iii)

  a member of the Police Force;

or

• (aa)

  a person for whom the CEO as defined in the Court Security and Custodial Services Act 1999 is responsible under section 10, 13, 15 or 16 of that Act, whether that person is at a custodial place as defined in that Act, is being moved between custodial places or escapes, or becomes absent, from a custodial place or during movement between custodial places; or

• (b)

  a person admitted to a centre under the Alcohol and Other Drugs Act 1974; or

• (ca)

  a resident as defined in the Declared Places (Mental Impairment) Act 2015 section 3; or

• (c)

  a person —

• (i)

  who is an involuntary patient under the Mental Health Act 2014; or

• (ii)

  who is apprehended or detained under that Act; or

• (iii)

  who is absent without leave from a hospital or other place under section 97 of that Act;

  or

• (d)

  a person detained under the Young Offenders Act 1994; or

• (e)

  a person subject to a hospital order under the Criminal Law (Mental Impairment) Act…