SCOTLAND'S Fatal Accident Inquiry system needs to be overhauled, says a Glasgow MSP.

Patricia Ferguson says there is a need to ensure families get answers and that lessons are learned from workplace deaths.

Ms Ferguson, who represents Maryhill and Springburn, today launched a consultation on a Bill to ensure recommendations of the inquiries are enforced and all work-related deaths are subject to a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI).

Ms Ferguson cited several cases, including the ICL/Stockline factory explosion in 2004 in Maryhill, where nine people were killed.

Other cases that led to the Bill being published include the Flying Phantom fishing boat tragedy in the River Clyde in 2007 and a man who died after a dialysis procedure at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Ms Ferguson said her Inquiries Into Deaths Bill would put greater emphasis on ensuring lessons are learned, as well establishing the facts.

She said: "The Bill aims to put the families of the deceased at the heart of the process, which is one of the most common criticisms of the current system for investigating fatal accidents.

"After suffering the trauma and heartache of losing a family member in sudden or unexplained circumstances, it surely should not be too much to ask that the process for investigating this death does not cause further agony and grief.

"I hope we will create the foundations for a new system that will allow families to understand what happened, why it happened and feel reassured that provisions are being made to prevent it happening again to someone else."

The MSP said there was a "false, and illogical distinction" between different types of workplace deaths.

While a fatal accident at work must have an inquiry, a death from an industrial disease, such as exposure to chemicals, does not.

She said the Bill was necessary because the Scottish Government had not moved to implement Lord Cullen's recommendations into FAI legislation published in 2009.

Ronald McAllister died in 2006 after a needle dislodged during dialysis at the Royal Infirmary, resulting in cardiac arrest and brain damage. But it was six years before an FAI determination.

Ms Ferguson said: "The family of Ronald McAllister had their lives turned upside down through their loss, but have also had to cope with the additional stress and trauma of not knowing the full extent of what caused his death.

"At a time when they should have been grieving and rebuilding their lives they were instead fighting for an FAI to establish to truth.

"The poor system we have in this country prevented his family having access to information that should have been made available far more quickly."

stewart.paterson@eveningtimes,co.uk