Its final report on burials and cremation, published this week after public consultation in 2024–25, recommends tighter safeguards—graves could be reused once 100 years have passed, but only with government approval and following local consultation. Relatives or friends would have a year in which to object to reuse, increased from six months, and their objection would prevent reuse for a further 25 years. The legal protections would, for the first time, be extended to Commonwealth war graves and military graves governed by the Ministry of Defence.
Currently, grave reuse is permitted after 75 years in London council cemeteries, Church of England graveyards and some cemeteries with their own specific laws.
Law Commissioner Professor Lisa Webley said: ‘Our recommendations respond directly to contemporary challenges, including the shortage of burial space, the complexities created by Victorian-era legislation, and the need to recognise the diverse religious and cultural practices in modern Britain.’ According to government research in 2007, council cemeteries would be full within 30 years on average, and less than this in urban areas.
The commission recommends a set of consistent rules for private and family cemeteries, including a minimum of two feet of soil above the coffin—there is currently no law on this in many burial grounds. It also recommends updating the offence of unlawful exhumation and making the law on building on top of disused burial grounds more consistent.
Funeral directors currently hold hundreds of thousands of sets of uncollected ashes. Under the commission’s recommendations, they would be able to return uncollected ashes to the crematorium concerned. Tighter safeguards would prevent unidentified remains from being cremated, and imposing identity checks to make sure the correct body is cremated.
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