Commentary on Sections Deaths outwith Scotland Section 17: Verification of foreign death certificates
48.This section gives medical reviewers the power to check foreign death certificates. Section 25 makes it an offence for persons having charge of a cemetery or crematorium to dispose of a body without the required documentation; in cases where the death occurred outside the UK, the document required for disposal will be a certificate issued by a medical reviewer. Medical reviewers, or their assistants, will check whether the relevant documents are authentic and equivalent to the documentation which would be required to dispose of the body of a person who died in Scotland and, if so, will issue the aforementioned certificate. In carrying out this function, medical reviewers have the power to make such enquiries as they consider appropriate.