Kent County Council is to investigate the county’s coroners service in the face of claims it’s taking too long to hold inquests and carry out post mortems.

The issue was raised by Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Trudy Dean, who said delays caused families distress.

The county council meets the costs of the service with £3.4 million but has no direct involvement in its day-to-day running.

At a full council meeting, Cllr Dean said: “In Kent as a whole, coroners called in 48 [deaths] out of every 100 referred to them for post mortem against a national average of 38; that means post-mortems are delayed and funerals, which can cause great distress to relatives.”

There were concerns over the time taken to hold inquests, she said, with some parts of Kent waiting more than 40 weeks.

“That again causes huge distress to families who have to relive the grief at losing a family member,” Cllr Dean added.

“Local authorities cannot and should not interfere with the judicial [decisions] and I am not suggesting they should.

"I do think it would be reasonable to look at whether it is working in the interests of justice and of the families concerned.”

Mid Kent and Medway coroner Patricia Harding apologised to the family of Edna Thompson, a grandmother who died of dehydration at Maidstone Hospital in September 2015.

Her inquest was opened nine months later and the full hearing took place in December.

The coroner blamed unprecedented pressures on the system and staffing issues.

Cllr Mike Hill, Conservative cabinet member responsible for the service, said managing it had been the most difficult aspect of his work.

He added: “The problem is coroners are their own masters in every way, including managing their own service.

"Trying to change the way they practise is virtually impossible – it cannot be done by us dictating, only by us if there is agreement.

"We are making some progress but it is not yet satisfactory.”

According to its most recent 2014-15 annual report waiting times for inquests varied.

In central and south east Kent, the average was 36 weeks, then north east Kent at 31 weeks, mid Kent and Medway at 24 weeks and 18 weeks for north west Kent.

Mike Hill, KCC’s Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “The figures quoted relate to 2015 and a number of changes have been made to the Coroner Service since then, following the retirement of a Coroner in north east Kent.

“A backlog of inquests has since been tackled, and although the official figures for 2016 are not yet available, we are confident that the average time taken for inquests to be completed will have improved.

“However, decisions on the necessity for post mortems rest entirely with the Coroners themselves. KCC’s role is to offer support and administration through the Coroner Service, and we would not wish to interfere in the Coroners’ judicial duties.”