Fatal Accident Inquiries

Introduction

These deaths are investigated privately for the local Crown Agent, an official called the Procurator Fiscal. The Fiscal will receive a report into the death, and the findings of this report are noted in the 'Register of Corrected Entries' (or RCE) at the General Register Office for Scotland.

This guide has been divided up into the following headings:

For the period after 1961 these can be obtained from the GROS directly.

The information in the RCE can be very brief, and may not tell you anything you don't already know. It will refer to a 'Precognition', which is the full report into the death received by the Fiscal. These tend not to be preserved permanently.


Procurator Fiscal Records
The records of the Procurator Fiscal Service are not normally retained by the National Archives of Scotland. However, those for the Procurator Fiscal Office in Banff were retained as a representative sample (NAS ref: AD17). They comprise registers of information and complaints lodged with the Fiscal from 1928, and police reports and precognitions etc. for the years 1815-1887 inclusive. From 1887-1967 only those years ending in a '7' and from 1971 only years ending in a '1' are kept as the sample.

The NAS also holds Procurator Fiscal records for Edinburgh from 1870-1896 (NAS ref: AD19); and case papers for Linlithgow Procurator Fiscal Service for 1971 (which contain papers regarding deaths intimated to the PF, NAS ref: AD23/20-57), which are closed for 75 years. Procurator Fiscal records for Lerwick are held by Shetland Archives.

In short, FAIs are held to investigate deaths in industrial accidents, deaths in prisons, and deaths where it is felt necessary to hold a public enquiry. However, they are held relatively rarely, and are not used for deaths by suicide or the vast majority of road traffic deaths.

If a Fatal Accident Inquiry has taken place this is usually indicated by reference to a jury in the RCE.

FAI: Records

Please note that several courts recorded minutes of FAIs in their record of criminal jury trials, and some are to be found in the Ordinary Court act books. Where they have been identified in these records, the names of the deceased and the dates of the inquiry have been added to the catalogue entries of the relevant books. There are often gaps in date ranges and these have not always been noted in the table below. Nearly all of the FAIs held by NAS have now been listed individually (see the table below) and it should be possible to find them by searching by the deceased's name in the NAS' online catalogue.

NAS holds FAI records for the following courts for the following dates:

* records in SC18/22 contain extra information for some items in SC18/21

If you ancestor died in an accident or suspicious circumstances prior to 1895 you may find information in a local newspaper. These are not held by the NAS, but can often be found in local libraries, in the National Library of Scotland and in the British Library in London.

• Fatal Accident Inquiries have only been held since 1895. If you ancestor died prior to 1895, no Fatal Accident Inquiry will have been held.
• Where the RCE makes reference to 'by jury' or 'by a jury' this generally means a Fatal Accident Inquiry was held. If it doesn't say that, then one was not held.
• Not all FAI records have survived - check the list above to see if they have survived for the period you are interested in.
• Most FAI records have been individually listed in the NAS online catalogue - check the catalogue for your ancestor's name if their accidental death does fit in the ranges noted above.
• Local newspapers may hold information if the death was due to an accident or suicide. Local newspapers can usually be found at local libraries as well as the National Library of Scotland and the British Library in London.