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Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023

Final provisions

Section 20: Modification of other enactments

52.Section 20 introduces schedule 2 which amends enactments relating to public authorities in order to bring the Commissioner within their provisions.

Section 21: Interpretation

53.Section 21 provides definitions of the key terms of “health care”, “forensic medical examination” and “patient”. The definition of “health care” mirrors other commonly used definitions of health care in the statute book and ties it to the “prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness” therefore excluding purely cosmetic procedures and treatments from the Commissioner’s remit.

54.Forensic medical examination” is to be construed as defined in the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 which states that it is “a physical medical examination carried out for purposes including the collection of evidence for use in connection with—

(a)

any investigation of the incident which gave rise to the need for the examination, or

(b)

any proceedings in relation to the incident.”

55.Patient” is to be construed in accordance with the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 which relies on the ordinary meaning of the word and, for the sake of clarity since pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers cannot (in most instances) be described as being “ill” when receiving antenatal, neonatal and postnatal health care, specifically includes “an expectant or nursing mother and a lying-in woman” in the meaning of patient in section 108.

56.As forensic medical examinations under the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021 are also included in the definition of health care in the Act, any person to whom a forensic medical examination is provided is also a patient.

Section 22: Ancillary provision

57.This section enables the Scottish Ministers, by regulations, to make incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provision in connection with the Act or any regulations made under it.

Section 23: Regulation-making powers

58.Subsection (1) provides that regulations made under the Act may make different provision for different purposes.

59.Subsection (2) makes clear that regulations under section 22 may modify any enactment, including this Act.

60.Subsection (3) provides that regulations under section 22 which add to, replace or omit any part of the text of an Act are subject to the affirmative procedure. Regulations under section 22 which do not modify primary legislation are subject to the negative procedure.

Section 24: Commencement

61.Subsection (1) of section 21 provides that this section and sections 22, 23 and 25 come into force on the day after Royal Assent.

62.Subsection (2) provides that the rest of the Act will come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers by regulations appoint.

Section 25: Short title

63.Section 25 provides for the short title of the Act, by which it may be cited. The short title is the Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland Act 2023.

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Text created by the Scottish Government to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Acts of the Scottish Parliament except those which result from Budget Bills.

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