Box 1 What is a Fatal Accident Inquiry?

• ■ The Scottish legal system provides a framework for a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) as an investigation into death, similar to the English coroner's inquiry. An FAI is not a criminal investigation, but can be requested by anyone who feels that an inquiry into a death may yield lessons for the public good. A sheriff (a senior salaried lawyer—equivalent to a county court judge) presides over a FAI, hearing eyewitness and expert witness evidence, allowing him or her to make recommendations on future policy or conduct. In Scotland, our politicians and lawmakers take such verdicts seriously.

• ■ In the last 9 years, there have been two FAIs into epilepsy-related deaths, most recently in August 2011 (see ‘Further reading’). This inquiry's recommendations—into two separate deaths—were similar, though stronger than Sheriff Taylor's in 2003. There may be some disquiet about evidence from international epileptologists being used to ‘show up’ practice in a district general hospital neurology clinic, but it can be argued that recent deliberations provided momentum for positive investment in our neurology provision.