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Births and Deaths Registration Act 1926
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1 Prohibition of disposal except on registrar’s certificate or coroner’s order. E+W
(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.
[F2(1A)For the purposes of subsection (1), a certificate, an order of the coroner or a written declaration may be delivered as a copy in an approved electronic form.
(1B)A declaration under subsection (1) may be made in an approved electronic form.]
(2)Any person contravening the provisions of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F3level 1 on the standard scale].
Textual Amendments
F1Words substituted by virtue of Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (c. 20), Sch. 1
F2S. 1(1A)(1B) inserted (1.12.2021) by The Births and Deaths Registration (Electronic Communications and Electronic Storage) Order 2021 (S.I. 2021/1231), arts. 1(2), 2(2)
F3Words 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)
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