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Legal changes have caused a “significant rise in case volume” at Gwent Coroner’s Service, meaning nearly three-quarters of new inquest hearings have missed a scheduling target.

Newport City Council, which manages the service, reported just 27.3% of new cases since April have been listed for inquest within six months after they were opened.

In each of the previous three years, more than 90% of new cases were heard within six months.

Mike Wallbank, the council’s head of law and standards, told a scrutiny committee the delays were down to “a couple of reasons… which have coalesced together and created something of a problem”.

“There was a change in the law last year, requiring deaths to be referred to the statutory medical examiner”, he said, explaining it was the examiner who now decides whether a death is referred to the coroner.

Typically, coroners investigate cases where a person’s death is believed to have been violent or unnatural, when the cause of death is unknown, or when a person dies in custody or state detention.

Mr Wallbank said the law change had “resulted in an increased volume of cases” for the Gwent Coroner’s Service – and another consequence was the referral of “more complicated” cases.

To contend with a 28% rise in referrals, the service has recruited two assistant coroners, who work on a part-time basis for at least 20 days a year.

Mr Wallbank said there had been “a bit of a delay getting them on board” while Ministry of Justice training was completed, but the two extra staff should be in position in January.

“That will help to start easing the backlog,” he told the committee. “I would expect to see an improvement in that figure the next time I sit here.

“Obviously there’s some way to go to get it back to the outstanding figures it was at previously, but that is pretty out of our control.”

Cllr Matthew Pimm asked whether the service had “just had a bad year” owing to a lack of staff.

“The number of staff has actually increased,” replied Mr Wallbank. “The issue is almost purely the legislative change – the cases they are referring tend to be more complex.

“That medical professional is looking at it, they’ve identified a medical issue which perhaps might not have [been] identified previously, and then the coroner and her time are having to dig into that.

“So not only have we got more cases coming in, we’ve also got to spend more time delving into them and getting to the bottom of them.”

Mr Wallbank added there was “no question of any negligence” on the council’s part, regarding any delays.