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All doctors are expected to work within the standards set out by the General Medical Council for good medical practice.

The Royal College of Pathologists and NHS Education for Scotland oversee training standards in pathology and their uniformity across Scotland.

COPFS regularly meets and engages with pathology providers on a range of issues. These also allow discussion on any feedback received. Every post mortem examination report is considered by a COPFS legal member of staff and our investigation is only concluded when we are satisfied that all issues have been addressed.

NHS Grampian provides the postmortem toxicology service for Aberdeen, Grampian and the Highlands and Islands. The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) provides the service for the rest of Scotland. SPA also currently processes priority cases for the whole of Scotland.

The current average turnaround time for post mortem toxicology results for non-priority cases referred to NHS Grampian in 2024 is 15.5 days, calculated from the date the samples arrive at the laboratory.

The current average turnaround time for post mortem toxicology results for cases referred to SPA in 2024, is 28 days for priority cases and 30.8 days for non-priority cases.

These figures are within the target agreed between COPFS and the toxicology providers.

COPFS has spent the following on locum forensic pathologists in Aberdeen in each of the last ten years:

Capacity within Aberdeen mortuary is not an issue and there are no current plans to increase the capacity for conducting post mortem examinations in Aberdeen.

A new mortuary facility in Aberdeen that will co-locate the Aberdeen City Mortuary and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Mortuary business is due to open in 2025. This will provide improved facilities for staff and families who are required to engage in the post mortem process.

COPFS has spent £19,485.37 on locum forensic pathologists since April 2024.

Where forensic service providers in Scotland have instructed the use of a forensic pathology locum pathologist to provide assistance, for example to cover sick leave, the costs are not known but there has been no additional cost to COPFS.

Any case that requires the post mortem examination to be conducted by two Forensic Pathologists is currently referred from Aberdeen to Edinburgh by COPFS. The majority of these are potential homicide cases.

COPFS’ case management database does not recognise the category of death of ‘medical mishap’. However, in the majority of medical deaths where there are concerns about the circumstances there would be no requirement for the post mortem examination to involve forensic pathologists.

There are no forensic pathologists currently based in Aberdeen.

Two members of administration staff support the pathology service in Aberdeen.

There are no issues with unascertained causes of deaths on death certificates in Aberdeen.

The certification of a person’s death is a matter that falls solely within the clinical responsibility of medical practitioners, who require to be satisfied to the best of their knowledge and belief as to the cause of death.

Following a post mortem examination, the pathologist will ordinarily certify the cause of death. In some cases, an ‘interim’ death certificate is issued by the pathologist indicating that the cause of death is unascertained until the results of further analysis - including but not limited to histopathology, toxicology and neuropathology - are obtained. This certificate allows the death to be registered and the body to be released to the family to allow funeral arrangements to be made. Once all analysis has concluded and the final cause of death is confirmed, the interim death certificate is then amended. However, in a small percentage of cases the pathologist is unable to determine a cause of death even after all such analysis is done.

There are a number of reasons why the pathologist may be unable to determine a cause of death, such as a significant delay between the date of death and the body being found.

Where a pathologist is unable to determine a cause of death, they will include in their report as much information as possible about their findings to assist nearest relatives with possible explanations for the death having occurred. COPFS will provide that information to relatives when advising them of the final cause of death.

NHS Grampian has provided COPFS with a commitment to implement a forensic pathology service in Aberdeen, including the recruitment of full-time forensic pathologists, and COPFS is supporting that process.

It is however a matter for NHS Grampian to recruit forensic pathologists to provide the services.

The reimplementation of a forensic pathology service in Aberdeen may allow one of the forensic pathologist training posts to be filled there, improving the potential for sustainable forensic services in Aberdeen and Scotland.