Provision for mandatory inquiries into deaths of members of the armed forces in Scotland is due to be in place later this year.
The Scottish Government announced it had secured “in principle” agreement from the Ministry of Defence for the change in December.
It will bring Scotland into line with England and Wales, where deaths involving service personnel in the course of their duties are automatically considered at a coroner’s inquest.
Holyrood could not legislate for the move as matters relating to defence and the armed forces remain reserved to the UK Government.
Instead it is being enacted by a special order, which has been drafted by Scottish Government lawyers and is currently circulating Whitehall departments.
The Press and Journal has learned the measure – which will not apply retrospectively – is expected to come into force “in the course of 2016”.
Pressure for change had been mounting since a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the Moray Firth Tornado jets tragedy was ruled out by the Crown Office in March of last year.
Three crew died and another was seriously injured when two Tornado GR4s collided during a training exercise off the Caithness coast in 2012.
Flight safety campaigner Jimmy Jones contacted the Scottish Government about the issue as the bill modernising other aspects of the FAI process was passing through the Scottish Parliament.
The Forres resident, who served in the RAF, has repeatedly criticised the “two-tier justice system” operating within UK defence in respect of military deaths.
In a reply, Legal Affairs Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “My officials are working towards the section 104 (order) provisions coming into force at the same time as the act which we propose to be in the course of 2016.”
While acknowledging the change, Mr Jones, who has written to a Commons defence committee about the issue, questioned why inquiries had not been triggered automatically in the past, citing the Queen’s Regulations on FAIs in Scotland.
But a Crown Office spokesman described them as “guidance”, adding: “They are not legislation and cannot be used to interpret legislation.”
In relation to the 2012 crash, the spokesman said it was concluded that an FAI “could not better and would only repeat” the Military Aviation Authority’s “highly detailed investigation”.
