Cremation Regulations

The Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008 (S.I. 2008/2841) — cited on their face as Statutory Instruments 2008 No. 2841 — set out the certification and record-keeping requirements a cremation authority must follow before a body can be cremated in England and Wales. As originally made, the Regulations built the safeguard against concealed crime around a pair of certificates: they defined 'medical certificate' and 'confirmatory medical certificate' as references to the certificates so named given in accordance with regulation 17(1) and (2) respectively, completed by two separate doctors, unless a coroner's certificate (Form Cremation 6) applied instead.

Where a death has already been referred to a coroner, the doctors' medical certificates are not needed because the coroner's own certificate performs the same function: guidance for funeral directors explains the requirement for a form Cremation 6 — Certificate of coroner, noting that 'the green form is not necessary in cases involving the relevant coroner'.

The scheme has since been overtaken by a wider reform of death certification. Following the introduction of statutory Medical Examiners, the requirement for a medical certificate (form Cremation 4) has been permanently removed for cases in England and Wales, and a confirmatory medical certificate (form Cremation 5) has been permanently removed, with independent scrutiny of the cause of death by a Medical Examiner or coroner now performing the safeguard that the original two-certificate system was designed to provide.