Commentary on Sections Exceptions Section 39: Criminal Justice purposes
54.This section deals with excluding activities done for criminal justice purposes from the relevant provisions of Part 2 of the Act. The intention is for all coroners' post mortem examinations carried out in premises to be subject to regulation, so even where these are carried out also for criminal justice purposes, they will not be excluded from Part 2 of the Act. Subsection (2) of the section achieves this. Subsection (1) excludes from the regulatory regime of Part 2 of the Act other activities done for criminal justice purposes. Examples of activities excluded from regulation by this section might be post mortem examinations authorised by a coroner in a criminal case to take place at the place where the police first attend a body (which would not need a licence) and disposal of material which has been removed from a body during a post mortem examination in a criminal case (which would not be within the HTA's remit and not subject to any code of practice on this subject).