About the Bill
The Bill was introduced by Gil Paterson MSP on 21 May 2020.
The purpose of the Bill is to make the existing right of the defence to instruct a postmortem examination for the purposes of the person’s defence (in addition to the post-mortem examination carried out at the instruction of the procurator fiscal), where a person has been charged with an offence in connection with causing or contributing to a death, subject to an extendable time limit.
Further information is available on the Bill web page.
Stage 1
The Justice Committee has been designated lead Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the Bill.
Evidence
The Committee took evidence on the Bill from Gil Paterson MSP at its meeting on Tuesday 29 September 2020.
Read the Official Report
Correspondence
Report
The Committee published its Stage 1 report on the Bill on Friday 13 November 2020.
Read the Stage 1 report