194.This section makes provision about what is to happen where the outcome of consideration of a death under section 19 is that a domestic homicide or suicide review is to be carried out in respect of the death. This therefore applies regardless of whether the decision to hold a review is the determination of the review oversight committee or whether it has come about because the Scottish Ministers have overturned the committee’s decision and directed that a review be held.
195.Subsection (1) requires the committee to appoint a case review panel to carry out the review. The detail of the composition of case review panels is dealt with at sections 15 and 16. The same case review panel could be appointed to carry out more than one review, or different panels could be appointed each time.
196.Subsection (2)(a) further provides that the committee can appoint a panel to carry out a combined review of two or more deaths. This might, for example, be appropriate where the same perpetrator has killed two people in the same incident, or where they have killed two partners in different relationships years apart. It could equally be appropriate for a combined review to be carried out where the perpetrators of abusive behaviour are different but the involvement the victims had with a particular agency was the same. Whether it is appropriate to carry out a combined review will depend on all the facts and circumstances of the particular cases and the extent to which it makes sense to consider the cases together. However, the question of whether a review is a combined one or not should have no bearing on the level of scrutiny applied to each case, and a combined review will still be able to examine different matters (for example, where a man kills his wife and child, there may be child protection elements to consider in relation to the child).
197.Subsection (2)(b) also allows the committee to instruct a panel to carry out its review in conjunction with a review of another type (which could be statutory or non-statutory). Examples of this might include a child protection learning review or an adult support and protection learning review conducted in respect of the death of a vulnerable adult. Another example would be a mental health homicide review into the care and treatment of a homicide perpetrator with a mental disorder.
198.Subsection (3) requires the committee to set the terms of reference for the review and allows these to be modified as the committee considers appropriate. Subsection (4) ensures that where the remit of a review is expanded under section 20, that is recorded in the terms of reference.
199.Subsection (5) allows the terms of reference of a review to be modified so as to set the remit as any remit that would have been permissible under section 20. This means that the remit can be expanded later, if new information comes to light which was not available at the time that the assessment under section 20 was carried out. It also means that the remit can be contracted later if it initially appeared appropriate to expand the remit under section 20 but it later becomes clear that this is not appropriate. However, the Lord Advocate’s consent continues to be required to any expansion of the remit in the same way as it is required under section 20(5) – meaning that it can be expanded to cover events after the death only with the Lord Advocate’s permission.
200.Subsection (6) requires the committee to ensure that the panel makes satisfactory progress in carrying out its review, that it acts in accordance with its terms of reference, and that it suspends, discontinues or resumes its review in line with any notice served on the committee by the Lord Advocate under section 23. Essentially, the committee will have a supervisory role in relation to any case review panels it establishes.
201.Subsection (7) allows the Scottish Ministers to pay expenses to those who participate in reviews. This is aimed at those who come and speak to the panel, as panel members themselves are able to be paid expenses under section 16(3) or the schedule.
Interpretation Conduct of reviews Section 22 – Carrying out of review