Welsh Church (Burial Grounds) Act 1945

4 Rights of burial, etc. U.K.

(1) Except so far as may be necessary to comply with any trust or condition affecting any part of a burial ground which is a private benefaction within the meaning of the principal Act, no discrimination shall be made between the burial of members of the Church in Wales and of other persons in any burial ground vested in the representative body under section eight of the principal Act or by section one of this Act or in pursuance of an agreement made under section two of this Act; and the provisions of the M1 Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 shall not apply so as to regulate burial in any such ground otherwise than according to the rites of the Church in Wales, save in so far as they are applied by the following provisions of this section.

(2) Any right of burial in any such burial ground subject to which it vested or vests in the representative body as aforesaid shall be subject, in lieu of any conditions as to the giving of notice or payment of fees which would otherwise have regulated the exercise thereof, to such conditions as to those matters as may be prescribed by rules made with the approval of the Secretary of State by the representative body; and rules so made may also provide in the case of any such burial ground which is attached to a church for regulating the times at which services may be held in the burial ground so as not to interfere with services in the church and for preventing interference by persons attending funerals with the clergy or congregation attending the church.

(3) Where a burial in any such burial ground is conducted otherwise than in accordance with the rites of the Church in Wales, the following enactments shall apply as if the burial were a burial in pursuance of a notice given under the M2 Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 that is to say—

(a) section ten of that Act (which relates to the registration of burials);

(b) sections one to three of the M3 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1926 (which prohibit the disposal of a body except on a registrar’s certificate or coroner’s order and provide for matters connected therewith).

Marginal Citations

M1 1880 c. 41.

M2 1880 c. 41.

M3 1926 c. 48.