0 in Scotland, a coroner (= a legal official who examines the reasons for a person's death, especially if it was violent or unexpected) or a public prosecutor (= a legal official who accuses someone of a crime): --
Police evidence was sent to the Procurator Fiscal, who had to decide whether there were grounds enough for criminal prosecutions to proceed.
In Scotland, it is the responsibility of the procurator fiscal to investigate all sudden, suspicious, unexplained, or accidental deaths, and if necessary to conduct a public enquiry before a sheriff.
This provision affords the police an option of to some extent second guessing the procurator fiscal and instituting proceedings of their own.
Using information provided by procurator fiscal offices, in 1995 there were 5,451 trials in district courts of which 899 were before a stipendiary magistrate court.
In some cases a procurator fiscal has responsibility for more than one district and where this is the case the districts have been grouped together.
The procurator fiscal gives the option of the fixed penalty.
The procurator fiscal decides whether an offence will be prosecuted.
The general register office issues a list of types of death which are to be reported to the procurator fiscal.
In the final resort, the procurator fiscal has to rely on the feed of evidence from the police.
Complaints involving criminality against the police are not referred only to the procurator fiscal.
