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6 DEATHS

It is the duty of the Procurator Fiscal to investigate all sudden, suspicious, unexplained, unexpected and accidental deaths as well as any death occurring in circumstances, which may give rise to public concern. It is a duty that Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service acknowledges must be carried out with the greatest care and attention. Comprehensive guidance is available for staff dealing with deaths.

Certain deaths require further investigation such as deaths arising from industrial disease or poisoning, any death indicating suicide, any death under medical or dental care, any death by drowning, any death resulting from a road traffic collision and a number of others.

Further to this certain deaths should be reported to Crown Office for Crown Counsel's instructions.

The Procurator Fiscal also has responsibility for carrying out Fatal Accident Inquiries ( FAI's) under the Fatal Accident and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976, which provides for the holding of mandatory and discretionary Fatal Accident Inquires in the Sheriff Court. Fatal Accident Inquiries are mandatory where a person has died in custody or prison or in the course of employment. A discretionary inquiry is at the request of the Lord Advocate in cases giving rise to serious public concern and where it appears to the Lord Advocate to be in the public interest that an inquiry should be held into the circumstances.

On examination of Crown Office statistics it was noted that during period January to December 2007 the Area received 1,185 death reports. This was an increase of 7% on the previous year compared with no change in the national percentage. The figures below show death reports received in the Ayrshire Area broken down into Office:

There are two Crown Office targets for deaths:

• To investigate 80% of routine deaths within 6 weeks
• To investigate 80% of deaths within 12 weeks

Crown Office figures show that during periods April 2006 to March 2007 and April 2007 to December 2007 the Ayrshire Area achieved one target and just narrowly missed the other in the first period and achieved both targets in the second period as follows:

Achievement towards targets can be found in tables in Appendices 2 and 3.

The following table shows the number of Fatal Accident Enquiries held in Ayrshire during periods January to December 2006 and January to December 2007:

As a result of Area restructuring an Area Deaths Unit was set up in 2006/07 which is currently part of the High Court Unit ¹¹ based in Kilmarnock, however, the Deaths Unit will be moving to Ayr in the near future.

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