A BILL to change Scotland's post mortem policy in honour of murdered teen Paige Doherty has officially been launched.

Clydebank's MSP Gil Paterson has formerly lodged the bill with the Scottish Parliament after a lengthy consultation process.

The SNP politician will now have one month to gather support from a fellow 18 MSPs from at least three political parties before the document can be put before a team of drafters before it is sent to the relevant parliament committee.

Mr Paterson said: “I am pleased that the Parliamentary process has now started, and I am anticipating support for this simple but crucial measure.

Read more: Paige Doherty murder sparks proposed post-mortem law change

“The fact that some of the comments submitted to the consultation by very learned people, who are heavily involved in the process, suggest it might be possible that in the future only one post-mortem, or two performed at the same time, might be desirable is indeed positive.

“It’s been a long journey for Paige’s family, I hope this will give them a little bit of comfort at this stage.”

Paige's Law aims to introduce a time-limit for a second defence post mortem to take place to allow families to have their loved ones returned to them sooner.

Read more: Paige Doherty murder sparks proposed post-mortem law change

Paige's heartbroken family have spoken out about their anguish at the month-long wait to bury the 15-year-old after she was killed in Clydebank in 2016.

Speaking earlier this year, the schoolgirl's mum Pamela told our sister paper The Evening Times: "When Paige passed away, we had to wait one month for her body to be released. This, for us, was horrific.

“We couldn’t go see her while she lay in the mortuary because we ran the risk of her body deteriorating to nothing so we made decision to leave her as long as we could...I’m fighting this not for Paige and I now but for [everyone else] because I don’t want anyone to see what we saw or go through the process we did.”