Law Commission consultation on burial and cremation

See paragraph 13.62 of the consultation paper.

We provisionally propose that, where a funeral director has held ashes for at least four weeks and wishes to return them to the cremation authority:

1. the funeral director must take reasonable steps to contact the applicant for cremation to determine whether they want to collect the ashes, or want the funeral director to return the ashes to the crematorium;
2. if no response is received within four weeks, the funeral director should have the right to return the ashes to the crematorium where the cremation took place;
3. the cremation authority should have a statutory duty to accept the return of the ashes to them by the funeral director; and
4. where ashes have been returned to the crematorium, the existing process for dealing with uncollected ashes should apply.

Do consultees agree?

See paragraph 13.66 of the consultation paper.

Are consultees aware of legal mechanisms that have been used to try to prevent ash scattering, and if so, do consultees know whether these measures have been effective?

See paragraph 13.82 of the consultation paper. 

We invite consultees’ views on which of the following two options they prefer. Either:

1. option 1: authorisation should be required to remove ash remains from a place of burial when:
   1. the ashes are likely to be identifiable. This mean that they are separable from the earth, and that their identity within a plot of land can be ascertained; and
   2. those who interred the ashes intended that they should remain identifiable; or
2. option 2: authorisation should be required to remove ash remains from a place of burial when:
   1. ashes are interred in a container; or
   2. ashes are interred in land where an exclusive burial right exists.

We invite consultees’ views on whether there should be any more circumstances in which authorisation is required to exhume ashes under the second test (that is, "Option 2" above).