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| Judge recommends overhaul of FAIs | Judge recommends overhaul of FAIs |
| (41 minutes later) | |
| One of Scotland's most senior judges is recommending a radical overhaul of the system of Fatal Accident Inquiries. | One of Scotland's most senior judges is recommending a radical overhaul of the system of Fatal Accident Inquiries. |
| Lord Cullen, the former lord president, said FAIs should no longer be held in court buildings and sheriffs and lawyers should not wear wigs and gowns. | Lord Cullen, the former lord president, said FAIs should no longer be held in court buildings and sheriffs and lawyers should not wear wigs and gowns. |
| The government-commissioned review also said it should be possible to hold FAIs into Scottish residents who die abroad. | |
| But it stopped short of recommending that deaths of service personnel abroad should be probed by such inquiries. | |
| Lord Cullen, who led public inquiries into the Piper Alpha disaster and the Dunblane shootings, said: "My aim has been to set out practical measures for a system for inquiry into fatalities that is effective, efficient and fair." | |
| He recommended the setting up of a central FAI team which would be led by an advocate depute or a senior prosecutor. | |
| It would ensure that adequate FAI training is given to procurators fiscal. | |
| FAIs are public inquiries into fatal accidents, such as the death of a person at work or in legal custody. | |
| They are also conducted where deaths are suspicious or unexplained and give rise to serious public concern. | |
| Their purpose is to establish the time, the place and cause of a death, but they do not attribute blame or guilt in either the civil or criminal sense. | |
| There are between 35 and 80 fatal accident inquiries each year. |