Official Report 596KB pdf
Under agenda item 3, we are considering two instruments. Issues have been raised on the following instrument.
Burial and Cremation (Applications and Registers) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (SSI 2025/360)
The purpose of the instrument is to update the burial and cremation application forms, including by making reference to disposal of human remains by hydrolysis; to improve the usability of the forms; and to amend the list of the information that cremation authorities must include in their registers.
In the new form BF4, there is no authorisation section, although such a section is included in all the other new forms. The committee asked about that, and the Scottish Government responded that it was not an intentional omission and that the regulations do not require the section to be completed, so it is currently completed only as an administrative step with no operative legal effect. It also said that the Government will set out in guidance that the step should still be undertaken, for the avoidance of any doubt. Nonetheless, the committee considers that, in the interests of consistency in the legislation, an authorisation section should have been included.
Does the committee wish to report the instrument on the general reporting ground?
Members indicated agreement.
The committee also asked the Scottish Government a number of other questions about the forms that the instrument addresses. The questions and answers were published online with the papers for the committee’s meeting.
Although the committee is not reporting those issues, the committee notes that the legislation is intended to improve the usability of the forms, which will often be completed by bereaved individuals.
Given that, does the committee wish to highlight to the lead committee its correspondence with the Scottish Government, in particular on questions 2 and 6?
Members indicated agreement.
The instrument also addresses an issue that the committee identified in Scottish statutory instrument Burial (Applications and Register) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (SSI 2024/334), on which the committee reported on 3 December 2024. The Scottish Government committed to correct that issue at “the next available opportunity”.
Does the committee wish to welcome that SSI 2025/360 fulfils that commitment?
Members indicated agreement.
Also under agenda item 3, no issues have been raised on the following instrument.
National Health Service (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 (SSI 2025/380)
Is the committee content that no reporting grounds are engaged?
Members indicated agreement.