10 December 2020

What: Tom Osborne, the coroner at the inquest of Roy Curtis, refuses to explain why DWP failed to give evidence. The inquest had heard evidence from a series of witnesses who described how DWP’s actions appeared to contribute to causing the death of 27-year-old Roy Curtis [see 18 November 2018]. Osborne was also the coroner at the inquest into the death of Stephen Carré nearly 11 years earlier, where he ruled that the decision to find Carré wrongly fit for work had been the “trigger” that led him to take his own life. Yet in the death of Roy Curtis, Osborne failed to ensure that any DWP civil servants gave evidence at the inquest.

Why significant: Failure to ensure that DWP civil servants gave evidence, despite clear links between DWP’s actions and the death of Roy Curtis.