HC Deb 28 July 1896 vol 43 cc812-3
MR. J. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, notwithstanding the assurance given by the Ulverston Burial Board in September 1894, that the Board's table of fees and charges would be altered to bring them into conformity with the provisions of Section 17 of the 20 and 21 Vic, c. 81, the Board has continued to include in its table fees payable to the minister in the unconsecrated ground identical in amount with those legally payable to the vicar in the consecrated part: whether he is aware that the Countesthorpe (Leicestershire) Parish Council, acting as a Burial Board, charges a fee for the erection of a headstone in both parts of the cemetery, but, while paying the fee to the incumbent in the consecrated part, carries the fee in the unconsecrated part to the account of the Board; and, whether steps will be taken, in the case of both cemeteries, to obtain such an alteration of the charges as will make them conform to the provisions of the above-quoted Act?

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Sir MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY,) Lancashire, Blackpool

As regards Ulverston, I am informed by the District Council that they have quite recently transferred to themselves, under, I presume, the powers conferred upon them by the Local Government Act, 1894, the duties of the Burial Board, and that a new table of fees will shortly be framed and submitted for approval. The facts as regards Countesthorpe are correctly stated in the Question, and had already been brought to my notice. There appears to be a misconception on the part of the Parish Council as to the proper construction of the Burial Act of 1857, and I am in communication with them on the point.