An Act to amend the law relating to certification of deaths and the disposal of the dead.
[15th December 1926]
Commencement Information
I1Act wholly in force at 1.7.1927 by s. 13(4) (now repealed).
(1)Subject as hereinafter provided, the body of a deceased person shall not be disposed of before a certificate of the registrar given [F1under subsection (2) or (3) of section eleven or under section twenty-four of the M1Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953] or an order of the coroner has been delivered to the person effecting the disposal:
Provided that it shall be lawful for the person effecting the disposal by burial of the body of any deceased person, if satisfied by a written declaration in the prescribed form by the person procuring the disposal that a certificate of the registrar or order of the coroner has been issued in respect of the deceased, to proceed with the burial notwithstanding that the certificate or order has not been previously delivered to him.
(2)Any person contravening the provisions of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F2level 1 on the standard scale].
Textual Amendments
F1Words substituted by virtue of Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (c. 20), Sch. 1
F2Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), ss. 38, 46
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1S. 1 applied by Welsh Church (Burial Grounds) Act 1945 (c. 27), s. 4(3)(b)
Marginal Citations
Textual Amendments
(1)The person effecting the disposal of the body of any deceased person shall, within ninety-six hours of the disposal, deliver to the registrar in the prescribed manner a notification as to the date, place and means of disposal of the body.
(2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F4
Textual Amendments
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C2S. 3(1) applied by Welsh Church (Burial Grounds) Act 1945 (c. 27), s. 4(3)(b)
The body of a deceased person shall not be removed out of England until the expiration of the prescribed period after notice of the removal has been given to the coroner within whose jurisdiction the body is lying or otherwise than in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed, and any person contravening the provisions of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F5level 3 on the standard scale].
Textual Amendments
F5Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), ss. 38, 46
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C3S. 4 excluded by Visiting Forces Act 1952 (c. 67), s. 7(4)
It shall not be lawful for a person who has control over or who ordinarily buries bodies in any burial ground to permit to be buried or to bury in such burial ground a still-born child before there is delivered to him either a certificate given by the registrar under [F6subsection (2) or (3) of section eleven of the M2Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953] relating to still-births or, if there has been an inquest, an order of the coroner.
Textual Amendments
F6Words substituted by virtue of Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (c. 20), Sch. 1
Marginal Citations
Textual Amendments
Textual Amendments
(1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F9
(2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F10
Textual Amendments
F9S. 8(1) repealed by Population (Statistics) Act 1938 (c. 12), s. 3(2)
F10S. 8(2) repealed by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1977 (c. 18), s. 1(1), Sch. 1 Pt. V
The [F11Secretary of State for Health], with the concurrence of the Secretary of State [F12for the Home Department] may make regulations—
(a)prescribing the period and form of notice to be given to the coroner of an intention to remove a body out of England; and as to the procedure upon removal and the notification of the registrar as to the date and place of such removal;
(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F13
Textual Amendments
F11Words substituted by S.I. 1988/1843, arts. 2(1), 5(4), Sch. 2 Pt. I, Sch. 3 para. 1(a)
F12Words inserted by S.I. 1968/1699
F13S. 9(b) repealed by Public Health Act 1936 (c. 49), s. 346, Sch. 3 and Public Health (London) Act 1936 (c. 50), Sch. 7
The power to make regulations under section seven of the M3Cremation Act 1902 shall include a power to make regulations for the purpose of applying the provisions of this Act to cases where human remains are disposed of by cremation, and except as may be provided by any such regulations this Act shall not apply to cremation.
Any person contravening any of the provisions of this Act in respect of which no penalty is expressly imposed shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F14level 1 on the standard scale].
Textual Amendments
F14Words substituted by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), ss. 38, 46
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—
“Prescribed” means prescribed by the Registrar-General with the concurrence of the [F15Secretary of State];
“Registrar” means, with respect to any death or birth the registrar who is the registrar for the sub-district in which the death or birth takes place;
“disposal” means disposal by burial, cremation or any other means, and “disposed of” has a corresponding meaning;
“person effecting the disposal” means the person by whom or whose officer the register of burials in which the disposal is to be registered is kept, except that in the case of a burial under the M4Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 in the churchyard or graveyard of a parish or ecclesiastical district the expression “person effecting the disposal” shall be construed as referring to the relative, friend, or legal representative having charge of or being responsible for the burial of the deceased person;
“still-born” and “still-birth” shall apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother, breathe or show any other signs of life.
(1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F16
(2)This Act shall not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland.
(3)This Act may be cited as the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1926 . . . F17
(4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F16
Textual Amendments
F16S. 13(1)(4), Sch. 2 repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1950 (c. 6)
F17Words repealed by Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (c. 20), Sch. 2
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C4Unreliable marginal note
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Textual Amendments
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Textual Amendments
F19S. 13(1)(4), Sch. 2 repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1950 (c. 6)