Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016

23 Private burial register

(1) Each local authority must prepare and maintain a register of private burials authorised by the authority under section 22(3) (a “private burial register”).

(2) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations—

(a) require a private burial register to be in a specified form and kept in a specified manner,

(b) require specified information to be recorded in a private burial register,

(c) make provision about when such information is to be recorded, or

(d) make such other provision relating to a private burial register as they consider appropriate.

(3) A local authority must make arrangements for its private burial register to be available for inspection by members of the public on payment of such reasonable charge (if any) as the authority may determine.

(4) A local authority must make arrangements for copies of entries in its private burial register to be supplied, on request, to members of the public on payment of such reasonable charge (if any) as the authority may determine.

(5) A private burial register must be kept indefinitely.

(6) An extract from a private burial register kept by a local authority, duly certified as a true copy by the local authority, is sufficient evidence of the private burial entered in it for the purposes of any court proceedings.

(7) In subsection (2), “specified” means specified in the regulations.