The cause of death of a young woman who died in Ibiza will be explored almost two years after her death.

Eighteen-year-old Becky Brock was found dead in a hotel room on the Spanish island in September 2015, after she had travelled to surprise a friend for her birthday.

The pre-inquest hearing, held at Nottingham Coroners’ Court, in Council House, heard that the family had not been informed of the date for the first hearing of the inquest opening, and heard about it from friends who had seen it in the Post, rather than being informed by the court itself.

Representing the family, Jan Alam said this had caused significant distress to the family.

She said: “It has concerned the family, and it caused a degree of upset learning in that way.”

Coroner for Nottinghamshire, Mairin Casey, apologised on behalf of her office, and said: “When someone dies and there’s going to be an inquest we have a preliminary hearing. It is our practice to inform families when that arises.

“When we have deaths from abroad and police are taking a lead with investigations, a police family liaison officer is assigned to the case.”

In this instance, both the coroners’ office and the police liaison officer assumed that the other party had informed the family of the date.

The coroner said: “Unfortunately what happened to you caused deep distress, and I apologise on behalf of my service, that this should have happened to you.

“We now have a single point of contact so there’s no confusion over who tells people what.”

The court also discussed which evidence would be included in the inquest. The family asked for a statement from one of Becky’s friends to be included which stated that she had never known her to be a drug user.

However, the coroner said: “I have no difficulty in accepting that the family were not aware of this (drug use), but in light of what’s already been disclosed, and information from Rebecca’s phone, it would be very difficult for me to find that she did not partake in illicit drugs.”

The court also heard that all evidence had been collected in Spanish, and had had to be translated.

The date of the inquest was set for Monday, September 4.