Certification of Death (Scotland) Act 2011 (asp 11): explanatory notes

Format:

Corporate Author:

Scotland Scottish Parliament

Publisher:

TSO (The Stationery Office)

The Act introduces a new system of scrutiny of medical certificates of cause of death. It creates the post of medical reviewer and senior medical reviewer whose functions are to review for accuracy the certificates referred to them from a variety of sources. A number of certificates will be referred at random by district registrars. The Registrar General will be responsible for ensuring that certificates are referred according to the chosen selection scheme. Persons with some connection to the deceased can apply for a review and certificates may also be selected by the medical reviewers themselves for scrutiny. Medical reviewers will be involved in the training of doctors in the completion of medical certificates of cause of death and information derived from reviews will directly feed into that training. The Act provides for the form of medical certificates of cause of death to be amended to show additional relevant medical information. Where a person has died outwith Scotland and the body is to be cremated in Scotland, medical reviewers will determine whether it is safe to cremate the body.