§ 3.5 p.m.
§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD AMMONMy Lords, the Bill to which I ask the House to give a Second Reading was introduced in another place as a Private Member's 12 Bill. It received the support and blessing of the Government and in effect comes before your Lordships as a recommendation from the Whole House. The Bill seeks to amend the Act of 1902. Cremation was then in its very beginning and, of course, there was a good deal of suspicion and uncertainty as to how it would work. In that year there were six crematoria in the country and 451 cremations. There are now 60 crematoria and the number of people cremated last year amounted to 107,159, indicating the great advance that cremation has made in popular favour—if one may use that term—during the last fifty years.
This Bill seeks to amend the 1902 Act to bring it into line with the Report of a Commission set up in 1935, and to follow on the recommendations made by the last Government. In asking that consent be given to this Bill, I have to assure your Lordships that there is no diminution in the safeguards against any criminal action which might be committed. The Bill seeks to bring the position more into line with the altered circumstances and to give local authorities, where there is a bigger demand, power to set up their own crematoria. It is gradually being recognised that cremation is a more sanitary arrangement and that ground taken up for burial can ill be spared, to say nothing of the very pathetic sights we see—neglected graves in churchyards and cemeteries where, for reasons not wholly due to neglect, but because the passage of time has removed all those responsible for their maintenance, these pathetic reminders have been left behind. As I say, the Bill has been thoroughly discussed; it has received the support of the Government itself, and it is desired that it shall become an Act as soon as possible. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Ammon.)
§ THE LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I have only this to say about this Bill. It has received the blessing of Her Majesty's Government in another place and on behalf of Her Majesty's Government I am prepared to give it a blessing in this House also. Therefore, it is doubly blessed. It is undoubtedly a useful though small piece of legislation, and we have no hesitation in commending it to the House.
§ LORD AMMONI thank the noble and learned Lord.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.