Services on Behalf of HM Coroner within Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon

Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council are seeking a suitably qualified and experienced provider for the provision of Services on Behalf of HM Coroner within Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon. Plymouth City Council, herein referred to as (‘the Council’), is acting as the lead authority for the purposes of this Procurement Opportunity. The Coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon is required to arrange the removal of bodies from the place of death or body holding area to the designated mortuary in order to allow the investigation of sudden unexpected death, unnatural deaths and those required to be reported to the Coroner under the Coroner’s Act. This service is a statutory service in which the Coroner needs to work closely with police and other statutory agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive to preserve the evidence and establish the identity of the deceased to an appropriate level, and establish the cause of death. Removal of the body by an undertaker to a public mortuary or designed holding place is required by the Local Authority to comply with Public Health legislation especially where it is a destitute body. The Coroner through the Coroner’s Officer or Police Officer will instruct a Provider to collect the body and take it to the mortuary. Body removals will need to be made from different locations in Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon and taken to specified mortuaries at locations in Devon and on occasions nationally at short and at any time.