THE BBC hit series Line of Duty contained a huge mistake about Scotland’s unique legal system in the penultimate episode of the current series, shown on Sunday.
Character Detective Inspector Steve Arnott – played by Greenock-born Martin Compston – mentioned a “Glasgow coroner” and “subsequent inquest”. However, there are no coroners in the Scottish legal system and no inquests.
In Scotland it is usually the Procurator Fiscal who has a similar but not identical role to the English coroner.
The Lord Advocate is technically in charge of investigating any death in Scotland which requires further explanation, but he or she usually assigns such an inquiry to the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit (SFIU). This is a specialist unit responsible for investigating all sudden, suspicious, accidental and unexplained deaths.
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Back in 1996, Procurators Fiscal investigated all sudden deaths where the circumstances surrounding the death appeared suspicious, accidental or unexplained, and the police usually carried out the inquiry, normally after a post-mortem examination had been carried out.
The nearest Scottish equivalent to an inquest is a Fatal Accident Inquiry.
The mistake came when Acting DSU Joanne Davidson, played by Scots actress Kelly Macdonald, was being interviewed by Superintendent Ted Hastings, played by Adrian Dunbar, and DI Arnott following her arrest.
They were joined by Anna Maxwell Martin playing Detective Superintendent Patricia Carmichael.
SPOILER ALERT
This is dialogue from the episode:
Arnott said: “We carried out checks on Samantha Davidson. The passport shown in Document 22 is the last one on record. An interim death certificate was issued for Samantha Davidson on the 5th of January 1996 by Glasgow City Coroner.
"The subsequent inquest into Samantha Davidson’s death recorded a finding of suicide.”
That is simply not how the procedure works in Scotland, then or now.
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Comments on social media included Jason Bell writing on Facebook: “The Glasgow City coroner line did it for me and every other Scottish lawyer and medic. No such thing. A bit of research wouldn't go amiss.”
Matthew Vallance wrote: “Typical lack of checking. The London-based assumption that what happens in England happens across the UK."
For good measure, Vallance added: “It’s been going on forever.”
The BBC has been approached for comment.
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