In Autumn 2020 there was a parliamentary inquiry into The Coroner Service. This is what the background to it states:

The Coroner Service exists to identify the deceased in a local area and ascertain causes of death. Coroners must investigate deaths that have been reported to them if they think that: the death may have been violent or unnatural; the cause of death is unknown or the person died in prison, police custody or another type of state detention.

Coroners are organised and funded locally. There are 88 coroner areas in England and Wales, each staffed differently. Most have a full-time senior coroner, though some have area coroners, and others assistant coroners (minimum 15 days per year). Each will have different staffing levels for administration and investigation. Not all have a dedicated court. COVID-19 is likely to have placed additional pressures on the Coroner Service. In 2019, 40% (210,9000) of all registered deaths were reported to coroners, 82,100 of these led to post-mortems, 30,000 of which proceeded to full inquests.

You can read a blog post I wrote about some of the submissions to it, and my own submission below.

You can read the final report of the Parliamentary Inquiry by the Justice Select Committee here.