Methodology
Sources and coverage
PFD Monitor is built from Prevention of Future Deaths reports and official responses published by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. These documents form the evidence base for the first version of the service.
This page explains what is included, how the collection is kept up to date, and where gaps may remain.
What we collect
For each published report, PFD Monitor aims to collect:
- the official report page;
- the coroner's report;
- official responses published with or after the report; and
- relevant notices or attachments on the official page.
We keep the original documents and record where and when they were found. The AI analysis begins only after this source material has been collected and preserved.
PFD Monitor does not treat copies from news sites, campaign websites, or other third parties as the official record.
The collection can change
An official report page is not always complete when it first appears. A response may be added later, while an existing document may be corrected, replaced, moved, or removed.
PFD Monitor checks recent pages regularly and revisits older pages. When a document changes, the new version is recorded without overwriting the earlier one.
Quality check
PFD Monitor checks that every document it expects to use was successfully collected. A failed download or broken page is recorded as a problem; it is not treated as proof that a report or response does not exist.
What coverage means
The site shows the dates covered by the current release and when the official sources were last checked. These dates describe PFD Monitor's collection, not every report that may exist.
A report can be missing because it has not yet been published, because its page could not be retrieved, or because a document was unavailable when the source was checked. Publication and processing can also take time, so the newest reports may not appear immediately.
If PFD Monitor has not found a response, the site uses this wording:
No official response was located on the published report page as of the date shown.
The site does not say that the organisation failed to respond. The response may not have been published, may have been added elsewhere, or may appear later.
What is not included
The first version of PFD Monitor does not use:
- unpublished reports or responses;
- internal organisational records;
- inspection reports, news coverage, or other external commentary;
- evidence showing whether an organisation carried out a stated action; or
- evidence showing whether an action was effective.
These sources could be relevant to a wider investigation, but they sit outside the current evidence boundary.
Interpret with care
PFD Monitor describes patterns in the reports and responses it has collected. It cannot measure how often a safety problem occurs in the wider population, Do not treat a gap in the collection as evidence that nothing happened.
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Corrections and feedback
If you know of an official report, response, or corrected document that appears to be missing, send us the official page address for review.