Question reference: S5W-33663
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 1 December 2020
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Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has given to (a) procurator fiscals, (b) GPs, (c) local authority burial or cremation departments and (d) registrars on extending their opening hours and availability over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure that funeral directors can continue to arrange and conduct funerals during the pandemic without the bereaved facing delays.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to work closely with all sectors involved in care and management of the deceased to identify potential problems and to minimise disruption and delays which could affect the ongoing provision of funeral services over the Christmas and New Year weekends.
The Lord Advocate is constitutionally responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected and unexplained deaths in Scotland. That is a function which he exercises independently of any other person, and one that is undertaken on his behalf by procurators fiscal employed within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). It is accordingly not for the Scottish Government to give advice to procurators fiscal. COPFS is satisfied that appropriate arrangements are in place for the forthcoming holiday period to ensure that deaths reported to the procurator fiscal during this time will be considered as expeditiously as possible in order to minimise the impact of reporting on nearest relatives and funeral arrangements that are to be made.
The Scottish Government has not advised GPs to extend their opening hours and availability over the Christmas and New Year period. The normal festive contingencies will be in place with surgeries closed 25 and 28 December and 1 and 4 January. This is the normal period of closure.
It is for burial and cremation authorities to decide when their facilities will be open over the festive period. The Scottish Government and the Inspector of Cremation are working with burial and cremation authorities, funeral director representatives and Regional Resilience Partnerships to ensure the sector has the information it requires to plan appropriately for the festive period. The Scottish Government will continue to work with the sector throughout the festive period to monitor the impact on availability of funerals, as has been the case since the beginning of the pandemic.
The opening hours and configuration of local registrar services remains the responsibility of local authorities. Opening times of registrar offices and availability to register a death remotely are being arranged locally for the festive period, while existing provision for out of hours registration continues to be in place in each local authority area.