Shropshire Star

Shropshire baby ashes scandal prompts new cremation laws

The Government has announced it will introduce a statutory definition of ashes following Shropshire's baby ashes scandal.

Published

The announcement comes after the findings of a Government consultation on infant cremations, which was sparked by an inquiry into the baby ashes scandal at Shrewsbury's Emstrey Crematorium.

Caroline Dinenage, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Family Justice, said that forms would now be amended to ensure parents' wishes are explicitly recorded before a cremation takes place, and that a group will consider the creation of an inspector of crematoria.

Mrs Dinenage said there should never be a repeat of the situation at Emstrey where more than 50 parents were given no ashes after their children were cremated.

In one case uncovered by a Shropshire Council inquiry, parents were told no ashes would be recovered only to find out later that they had been scattered in the crematorium's garden of remembrance without their knowledge.

In a statement Mrs Dinenage said: "Improving infant cremation legislation and practice has been a priority for me since I joined the Ministry of Justice last year. I am therefore very pleased to publish this document which sets out the changes we plan to make.

"We consulted between December 2015 and March 2016 following consideration of David Jenkins' report of June 2015 into infant cremations at Emstrey Crematorium in Shropshire, and Lord Bonomy's Scottish Infant Cremation Commission report of June 2014.

"These reports found that ashes were either not recovered following infant cremations, or were recovered but parents were neither consulted over what should happen to their babies' ashes nor advised of the ashes' final resting place.

"Such practices caused parents already grieving the loss of their baby immense additional distress. Some parents will never know what happened to their babies' ashes.

"I have always made it clear that such practices should never happen again. It is my aim that the changes I am announcing today will ensure that no bereaved parent suffers in future as many have suffered in the past."

The changes that will be introduced include a statutory definition of ashes and amending statutory cremation forms to make sure that applicants' wishes in relation to recovered ashes are explicit and clearly recorded before a cremation takes place.

The Government will also establish a national cremation working group of experts to provide advice on a number of technical matters related to the proposed reforms, such as the detail of new regulations and forms, codes of practice and training for cremation authority staff, information for bereaved parents, and whether there should be an inspector of crematoria.

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