The Removal of Bodies Regulations 1954

Statutory Instruments

1954 No. 448

REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, DEATHS, MARRIAGES, ETC.

The Removal of Bodies Regulations, 1954

Made

5th April 1954

Coming into Operation

1st May 1954

The Minister of Health, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 9 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, hereby makes the following regulations:—

1.  These regulations may be cited as the Removal of Bodies Regulations, 1954, and shall come into operation on the first day of May, 1954.

2.  The Interpretation Act, 1889, applies to the interpretation of these regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

3.  The Removal of Bodies from England Regulations, 1927(1), are hereby revoked, but without prejudice to any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred thereunder.

4.  Every person intending to remove the body of a deceased person out of England shall give notice of his intention in the form set forth in the first schedule to these regulations, or in a form substantially to the like effect, to the coroner within whose jurisdiction the body is lying, and when the deceased person died in England and a certificate has been given by a registrar under section 24 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1953, or a coroner's order for burial or certificate for cremation has been issued, the certificate or order shall be delivered to the coroner with the notice.

5.—(1) Upon receiving any such notice the coroner shall forthwith send or deliver—

(a) to the person who gave the notice, or the undertaker or other person designated by that person for the purpose, an acknowledgment of the receipt of the notice in the form set forth in the second schedule to these regulations or in a form substantially to the like effect, and

(b) to the registrar for the sub-district in which the death occurred, or in which the dead body was found, a notification that a notice of intention to remove the body out of England has been received, and, if a certificate given by that registrar under section 24 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1953, was sent to the coroner under regulation 4 of these regulations, the certificate so sent.

(2) Any coroner's order for burial or certificate for cremation sent to the coroner under regulation 4 of these regulations shall be retained by him unless he is notified in writing by the person wishing to remove the body out of England that it is intended that the body shall be cremated in Scotland or the Channel Islands, in which case the coroner shall endorse the certificate with words to the effect that it shall henceforth be valid only for cremation in Scotland or the Channel Islands, as the case may be, and return it to the person receiving the acknowledgment of the receipt of notice under sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph (1) of this regulation.

6.  The body shall not be removed out of England before the expiration of a period of four clear days after the day on which notice of intention to remove the body was received by the coroner:

Provided that, where the coroner states in his acknowledgment of receipt of the notice that after making due enquiry he is satisfied that no further enquiries by him are necessary concerning the death, the body may be removed out of England at any time after the acknowledgment has been received by the person to whom it is addressed, notwithstanding that the said period of four days has not expired.

7.  Any notice, acknowledgment or notification required by these regulations to be given, sent or delivered may be sent by post.

FIRST SCHEDULE FORM OF NOTICE TO A CORONER OF INTENTION TO REMOVE A BODY OUT OF ENGLAND

SECOND SCHEDULE FORM OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT BY A CORONER OF RECEIPT OF NOTICE OF INTENTION TO REMOVE A BODY OUT OF ENGLAND

Given under the official seal of the Minister of Health this fifth day of April, in the year nineteen hundred and fifty-four.

L.S.

Iain Macleod

Minister of Health

I concur,

David Maxwell Fyfe

Secretary of State

EXPLANATORY NOTE

These regulations replace the Removal of Bodies from England Regulations, 1927. They prescribe the period of notice to be given to the coroner before removal of a body out of England, and provide for the surrender of any document already issued for disposal of the body in England.

(1)

(Rev. XIX, p. 932: 1927, p. 281).