§ MR. S. MOSS (Denbighshire, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the action of the Vicar of Holt, Denbighshire, in refusing to accept a notice tendered to him under Section 1 of the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880, for the burial in Holt Churchyard of a deceased person without the performance in the manner prescribed by the law of the Service for the Burial of the Dead according to the rites of the Church of England; whether he is aware that the Vicar declined to allow a Nonconformist minister to officiate in the churchyard at the funeral of such deceased person; and whether any steps will be taken to prevent a repetition of such conduct in future, as being contrary to the provisions and the spirit of the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTI have inquired into the facts of this case, a report of which the hon. Member has been good enough to send me. Permission for the burial to take place with Nonconformist rites was refused on the ground that the deceased lady was a non-parishioner, and consequently had no right of interment. The Act of 1880 does not operate to confer such right of interment in any place where it does not otherwise exist. I have no authority to decide the point of law involved.
§ MR. MOSSMay I ask whether, in the event of the deceased person owning the ground, the grave being a family grave, the Vicar is entitled to refuse the right of burial or the performance of the ceremony with Nonconformist rites?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTIf these people had a right of interment there, the Vicar had no right to refuse to allow the performance of the ceremony.