HC Deb 12 July 1984 vol 63 c635W
Mr. Normanton

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will bring to the attention of all concerned, doctors, registrars of births, marriages and deaths, and general undertakers, the procedures to be followed when a United Kingdom citizen dies in another EC member state and where relatives wish to have the body cremated in that country or returned to the United Kingdom for cremation.

Mr. Mellor

The Secretary of State is responsible only for the cremation laws and regulations in England and Wales. It is primarily for the member States of the European Communities to make known their own laws governing cremation within their borders and I am not at present aware of any difficulties which would justify action on our part. As to relatives who wish to have a body cremated in England and Wales, it is our view that those most directly concerned are in general already fully conversant with the procedures to be followed before cremation may be authorised.

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