Review launched into coroner services after complaints from Jews and Muslims

The consultation will run for eight weeks.

The Jewish and Muslim communities welcomed the review when it was announced in earlier this year.

Leaders had met Justice Secretary Michael Gove to discuss concerns over delays in releasing bodies.

The two communities had clashed with senior coroner for Inner North London, Mary Hassell, over the scrapping of weekends and out-of-hours services, which meant burials were delayed.

In July, a High Court judge backed the religious right of Jews and Muslims to ask for a post-mortem to be carried out by scan rather than cutting up open the body.

The case was brought by the family of an Orthodox Jewish woman who resisted an order by Ms Hassell for an invasive autopsy to determine the cause of her death last year.