Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) Whenever any child
of more than 20 weeks gestation is stillborn or any child under the age of one
year shall die from any cause whatsoever, the fact shall be reported forthwith
to the Chief Health Officer by the medical practitioner who, for the purposes
of section 44 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1998 ,
certified the cause of the child’s death.
(2) On receiving the
report, the Chief Health Officer must, by notice in writing signed by the
Chief Health Officer —
(a)
direct an investigator appointed under Part XIIIB to enquire into the
circumstances of that stillbirth or death; and
(b)
require the investigator to present to the Chairperson of the Perinatal and
Infant Mortality Committee appointed under that Part, within a time specified
in the notice, a full report of the investigation made by the investigator.
(3A) Subsection (2)
does not apply if the Chief Health Officer is satisfied that the cause of
death arose from —
(a) a
specific injury; or
(b) an
illness that the Committee has directed does not require further
investigation.
(3) The report of the
investigator presented to the Chairperson shall be in the form of connected
medical case history relating to the deceased child but shall not contain any
particulars from which it may be possible to ascertain the identity of that
child.
(4) For the purposes
of this section all information, records of interviews, reports, statements,
memoranda or other particulars obtained by the investigator during an
investigation made by the investigator pursuant to the provisions of this
section shall be confidential and shall not be communicated or divulged,
either in whole or in part, to any person other than the Chairperson of the
Perinatal and Infant Mortality Committee, or by the Chairperson or any other
member of the Committee, except for the purposes and in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIIIB.
(5) Information,
records of interviews, reports, statements, memoranda and other particulars
referred to in subsection (4) are not admissible in any court or before any
tribunal, board or person in any action, cause or inquiry of any kind
whatsoever.
(5a) A person employed
by or acting with or under the instructions or under the authority of the
Perinatal and Infant Mortality Committee who exhibits, communicates or
divulges in whole or in part any information, record of interview, report,
statement, memorandum or other particular referred to in subsection (4) except
for the purposes of, and in accordance with, Part XIIIB commits an offence.
(6) No person,
corporate body, association, or institution shall be liable in any action for
damages or other relief by reason of the furnishing to the investigator, or to
the Perinatal and Infant Mortality Committee, of any information, record,
report, statement, memorandum or particulars referred to in subsection (4).
(7) Nothing in this
section shall prejudice or otherwise affect any of the provisions of the
Coroners Act 1996 , or of any other Act so far as the same relates to
prosecutions for indictable and other offences and the obtaining and adducing
of evidence relative thereto, but this section shall be read and construed as
separate and distinct from the provisions of those Acts.
[Section 336A inserted: No. 47 of 1978 s. 33;
amended: No. 28 of 1984 s. 45; No. 80 of 1987 s. 153; No. 2 of 1996 s. 61; No.
40 of 1998 s. 14(5); No. 19 of 2016 s. 38 and 100.]