Swansea and Neath Port Talbot coroner's pay boosted

Coroners are called in when a death is suspicious or unexplained

The acting senior coroner for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot will see his pay rise by more than a third.

The salary for Colin Phillips will go up from £91,420 to £127,000 in line with new rates based on the complexity of the role.

The system was revamped in November 2017 to tackle what coroners said was a "wide disparity" in pay across the UK.

Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire coroner Mark Layton will see his pay double to £98,320 for a four-day week.

His new salary was confirmed by the two councils concerned in October.

Coroners are independent judicial officers appointed and funded by local authorities for their work.

The new national pay framework and guidance for coroners' pay across England and Wales is within a range of £117,000 to £130,000.

'Busy and complex'

Individual salaries are based on the complexity of work they carry out, which take into account the presence of prisons, hospitals, and jury cases, among others.

Mr Phillips's new salary was backed by Neath Port Talbot's cabinet on Wednesday and the Swansea cabinet on Thursday, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A report to the councils said it was "a busy and complex coroner area" but that "the pay of the senior coroner does not currently reflect this".

It said that with 2,350 to 2,600 reported deaths a year across the two counties, there were 350 inquests, of which 50 were described as "complex".

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The increase will be backdated to November 2017, but there will be no change to the £400 daily rate for the area's two assistant coroners.

A spokesman for the Swansea and Neath Port Talbot coroner service said the change "reflects the scope of the work of the local coroner's service and brings it into line with neighbouring services in England and Wales with similar responsibilities and workloads".