Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023

Miscellaneous provisions

16 Advisory group

(1) The Commissioner must establish and maintain an advisory group.

(2) The purpose of the group is to give advice and information to the Commissioner about matters relating to the Commissioner’s functions.

(3) The members of the group are to be appointed by the Commissioner.

(4) The Commissioner may only appoint a person as a member of the group if the appointment—

(a) has been approved by the Parliamentary corporation,

(b) would not result in the number of members of the group exceeding the maximum determined by the Parliamentary corporation,

(c) is consistent with the principle that at least half of the group’s members are to be persons who appear to the Commissioner to be representative of patients.

(5) The Commissioner may pay to members of the group such remuneration and allowances (including expenses) as the Commissioner, with the approval of the Parliamentary corporation, determines.

(6) The advisory group’s procedure and terms of membership are to be determined by the Commissioner.

(7) Nothing in this section precludes the Commissioner from obtaining advice from any other person.

17 Reports

(1) Aside from the reports that the Commissioner has a duty to lay before the Scottish Parliament, the Commissioner may lay before the Parliament any other report prepared by the Commissioner if the Commissioner considers it appropriate to do so.

(2) The Commissioner must ensure that, so far as reasonably practicable having regard to the subject matter, a report does not name or otherwise identify an individual who has—

(a) given information to the Commissioner, and

(b) not consented to being named in the report.

18 Protection from actions of defamation

(1) For the purposes of the law of defamation—

(a) any statement made to the Commissioner has absolute privilege,

(b) any statement in the Commissioner’s report on an investigation has absolute privilege,

(c) any other statement made by the Commissioner has qualified privilege.

(2) In this section—

(a) a reference to a statement being made to or by the Commissioner—

(i) includes a statement being made to or by (as the case may be) a member of the Commissioner’s staff,

(ii) does not include a statement made to or by (as the case may be) an individual when the individual is not acting in the individual’s capacity as the Commissioner or a member of the Commissioner’s staff,

(b) “statement” has the same meaning as in the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021.

19 Directions about premises and sharing of resources

(1) The Commissioner must comply with any direction given to the Commissioner by the Parliamentary corporation in relation to—

(a) the location of the Commissioner’s office,

(b) the sharing of premises, staff, services or other resources.

(2) The Parliamentary corporation is to make any direction under this section publicly available.

(3) A direction under this section may vary or revoke a previous direction.