HUNDREDS of deaths of mentally ill patients may not have been properly investigated because they were denied inquests, official figures showed yesterday.

All deaths of people sectioned under the Mental Health Act, even if due to natural causes, are supposed to be reported to a coroner.

But between 2011 and 2014 only 373 out of 1,115 deaths of people detained under the Act were reported to coroners in England and Wales, figures from the Ministry of Justice and the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths show.

Health officials said the discrepancy is likely to have occurred as a result of officials not flagging up the deaths in detention.

Rethink Mental Illness charity director Brian Dow said: “These figures are alarming, especially if there is a risk that deaths have not been thoroughly investigated.

“If incidents are not being appropriately referred and examined then lessons can’t be learnt about how to avoid further tragedies in the future.”

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott called the figures “shocking.”

She said: “If the state has deprived someone of their liberty and they then die under detention, their death must be reported to a coroner.”