The Burial Act 1857 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It is one of the Burial Acts 1852 to 1885. Its purpose is to regulate

burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

s. It regulates where and how

deceased Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

people may be buried, and provides for the

exhumation Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

of remains. The Act made it illegal to disturb a grave (other than for an officially sanctioned exhumation). The Act did not make it illegal to steal a dead body, and it is only the opening of the grave which constitutes an offence, not the removal of the contents.

Guidance for Burial Ground Managers

The Government Department for Constitutional Affairs provides guidance for burial ground managers, and many aspect of it relate to provisions contained in the Burial Act 1857.

Disturbing a Burial and Exhumation

Concerns arose that due to pressures of population movement to urban areas during the

Industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

that burial graves were reused too quickly. The offence of disturbing a burial included in the Burial Act 1857 was based on the Victorian value that a burial was for eternity. Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 makes it unlawful in England and Wales to disturb human burials without a licence from the Secretary of State, or on ground consecrated by the rites of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, without the permission of the church. The mechanisms about how the Church of England provides this permission slightly differs depending if the remains are at a church or cathedral. In Scotland, the law is different and covered by the Burial and Cremations Act (Scotland) Act 2016. The powers for a

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

to permit an exhumation fall outside the scope of the Burial Act 1857 and The Coroners And Justice Act 2009 allows them to authorise an

for the purposes of a

post-mortem An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any dis ...

and in relation to criminal proceedings.

Viewpoint of Licensing Authorities on Exhumation

The Blagdon Cemetery

002 002, 0O2, O02, OO2, or 002 may refer to: Fiction *002, fictional British 00 Agent *''002 Operazione Luna'', *1965 Italian film *Zero Two, a ''Darling in the Franxx'' character Airports *0O2, Baker Airport *O02, Nervino Airport Astronomy *1996 ...

Court of Arches The Arches Court, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court. It takes its name from the street-level ...

case is the basis of the Church of England exhumation guidelines. The viewpoint of the Church of England is burial is final and only grants exhumation in exceptional circumstances. The Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England is a partnership between

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

, and the Church of England providing guidance based on the law,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

research, and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. In England and Wales, The Ministry of Justice holds the right to issue exhumation licence. Before issuing a licence, consent is required from close relatives of the deceased, grave owner, and burial authority.

Modern amendments

In 2004, the Government, in response to the problem of the lack of space for new burials, partly a consequence of the Burial Act 1857, held a consultation called, “Burial Law and Policy in the 21st Century”. The consultation considered how to address the problem that when a burial ground became full, it generated no income from new burials, and without income, it may become difficult to maintain and fall into neglect. London Burial Authorities in some instances could reclaim and reuse a grave after 75 years, under the London Authorities Act 2007. Extending this provision elsewhere in the country was deliberated. The consultation considered the ‘Exclusive Rights for Burial’. When purchasing a grave, a person usually buys the right to exclusively be buried in it for a period, often 100 years, they do not buy the land. Noted was the possibility of reusing graves with the permission of the Church of England. Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857, amended by Section 2 of the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measures 2014, permitted the disturbance of graves with Church of England permission. Successive Government have considered the problem of lack of space for graves but not taken any action. The 2015 amendments to the Burial Act 1857, allowing the Church of England to reuse graves, was controversial. Such changes have been criticised as offensive and distressing to the living, and disrespectful to the dead.

References

External links

*
'Burial Law and Policy in the 21st Century'
The 2014 Government consultation on reusing graves {{UK legislation Burials in the United Kingdom Death customs Legal aspects of death United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1857 Coroner's courts in the United Kingdom Christianity and death