Notification of potentially reviewable deaths
Section 17 – Notification of deaths
167.This section deals with the notification of deaths to the review oversight committee, so that they can be considered for review.
168.The chief constable of Police Scotland, the Lord Advocate and the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (“the PIRC”) are “notifying bodies” for the purpose of this section and, as such, must give written notice to the committee of any death of which they are aware and which they believe to be a reviewable death. When doing so, they must provide the Scottish Ministers with a copy of the notification.
169.The Scottish Ministers also have the power to make a written referral to the committee where they become aware of a death which is, or might be, a reviewable death and they know, from not having received a copy notification, that notice of it has not already been given by a notifying body. This might be relevant where, for example, a Scottish resident dies abroad and so the authority with responsibility for investigating the death and bringing any appropriate criminal proceedings is a foreign authority. It is accepted that the Scottish Ministers may have less information about deaths which they refer under this section, and so the threshold for referral is correspondingly lower. However, if the Scottish Ministers do make a referral, they must provide a copy of it to all notifying bodies. There is no restriction upon how the Scottish Ministers may become aware of a death in order to refer it to the committee – for example, they could become aware of a death abroad through diplomatic channels, or a friend or family member might contact Ministers with information seeking a review.
170.A notification or referral under this section is to include such information as the person making it possesses or controls which they consider likely to be of assistance to the committee for the purpose of its consideration under section 19(1) (i.e. checking that the death is in fact a reviewable one and then, if it is, determining whether a review should be held). Although the committee has information-gathering powers which it may need to exercise in connection with this consideration, this ensures that the committee is at least provided as a starting point with relevant information from the person making the notification or referral. As this information is to form part of the notification or referral, this means that it forms part of what must be copied to the Scottish Ministers or (as the case may be) a notifying body under subsection (1)(b) or (3).
Section 18 – Revocation of notification
171.This section allows for the revocation of the notice or referral that is given to the review oversight committee under section 17. The notification or referral can be revoked by the person who gave it only where the person believes that the death is not a reviewable death (for example, because further information has come to light since the original notification was given, or because the original notice was given in error).
172.A notification or referral can only be revoked up until the point where a decision is made by the review oversight committee under section 19 as to whether the death is a reviewable one. If a decision on that point has already been made then, if the full outcome of the section 19 process is that a review is to be carried out, the means by which the process could be ended would be via the Lord Advocate’s power to order discontinuation of proceedings under section 23.
173.Similar to the original notice, the power of revocation is exercised by the person giving notice in writing to the review oversight committee. However, reasons must be given for the original notice being revoked (i.e. why the death is not thought to be reviewable). As with the original notice, it must be copied to the copy recipient of the original notice.
174.The effect of a revocation notice being received by the committee prior to a decision being made as to the reviewability of the death is that the original notice is to be treated as never having been given. That means that if the committee’s sift stage had begun, it must be brought to an end unless and to the extent that the sift is predicated on another notification or referral which was not revoked. For example, if both the Chief Constable and the PIRC made a notification but one of them then had cause to revoke it, the sift must continue to consider the notification which remains live. The notification will also not count for the purpose of the requirement in section 30 to report on the number of notifications received during the year, as the report is concerned with progress made on notifications which are not revoked.
