Certification of Death (Scotland) Act 2011 - Explanatory Notes

1. Introduction

2. Summary of the Act

3. Commentary on Sections

   1. Medical reviewers

      1. Section 1: Medical reviewers

   2. Referral of medical certificates of cause of death for review

      1. Section 2: Referral of certain certificates of cause of death for review

      2. Section 3: Medical reviewer requests

      3. Section 4: Application for review of certificate by interested person

      4. Section 5: Stay of registration of death pending review

      5. Section 6: Request for review not to stay registration

      6. Section 7: Medical reviewer to determine whether review to stay registration

   3. Review of medical certificates of cause of death

      1. Section 8: Review of medical certificates of cause of death

      2. Section 9: Action following satisfactory review

      3. Section 10: Action following unsatisfactory review: medical reviewer

      4. Section 11: Action following unsatisfactory review: senior medical reviewer

      5. Section 12: Action where relevant medical practitioner is unavailable or incapacitated

      6. Section 13: Duty to inform following review

   4. Powers of medical reviewers when conducting review

      1. Section 14: Power to require documents

      2. Section 15: Documents: offences

   5. Duty to report suspicions of criminality

      1. Section 16: Involvement of procurator fiscal

   6. Deaths outwith Scotland

      1. Section 17: Verification of foreign death certificates

      2. Section 18: Medical reviewers to authorise cremation

      3. Section 19: Post-mortem examination of person who died outwith United Kingdom

   7. Other functions of medical reviewers

      1. Section 20: Training and information functions

      2. Section 21: Duty to co-operate

      3. Section 22: Guidance

      4. Section 23: Annual report

   8. Fees

      1. Section 24: Fees in respect of medical reviewer functions

   9. Disposal of bodies

      1. Section 25: Prohibition on disposal of body without authorisation

      2. Section 26: Certifying medical practitioner to provide additional information

      3. Section 27: Still-birth declarations

   10. General

       1. Sections 28-32

       2. Schedule 1

       3. Schedule 2

4. Parliamentary History