Hansard

This has been a good debate with a thorough airing of some issues. The bill covers a wide variety of issues for Parliament’s consideration. I will touch initially on one that has not been discussed at length in the debate but which constituents have raised with the Scottish Labour Party and which is worth touching on: exclusion zones around crematoria.

The bill leaves that matter as part of the local authority planning process, and we very much agree with that decision. However, we have had representations from constituents on exclusion zones and on how proximity to crematoria can affect people, families and their properties. Nevertheless, we agree that the appropriate place for such decisions to be made is in the local planning process, which considers all local matters.

As someone who was involved in local issues to do with the baby ashes situation and as a Health and Sport Committee member, Malcolm Chisholm raised the important issue of training for staff who consult women who have lost babies or suffered pregnancy loss. That was an important point to make that is worthy of consideration. He also mentioned the importance of codes of practice in crematoria and the need for standardisation of those codes across the country. In addition, he raised the issue of licensing funeral directors.

Nigel Don made an important point about the number of delegated powers that are contained in the bill and the fact that more detail should be on the face of the bill. I trust that the minister will look at the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s recommendations, which she may take up at stage 2.

Kevin Stewart made the point that local authorities should have to publish their costs. We agree that that would be a useful way to proceed, and I am glad that such a provision is being included in the bill.

In their interesting speeches, Willie Coffey and Stewart Stevenson considered the possibility of burial and cremation records being linked to national records. We know that Scotland has a genealogy industry and that there are opportunities for people from America and Canada to come here to trace their ancestry. At a recent family funeral, there was an interesting discussion about which cemetery in Glasgow a great-grandfather was buried in, how such information can be obtained, how the internet and national records can be used to do that and where people should look. That elucidates the point that Willie Coffey and Stewart Stevenson made: there is an opportunity for business and for considering our social and cultural history, so the linking of records should be explored.

My colleague Lesley Brennan commented on funeral poverty. She is right that the bill does not address the issue, which we might come back to in the next session of Parliament. She spoke movingly about her friend’s situation on the death of his mother and made the point that the bill does not really deal with funeral poverty.

We very much welcome the fact that the Scottish Government has committed to holding a conference on funeral poverty, but perhaps the minister could reassure us that she has considered everything that she can do legislatively to regulate costs and the industry and has concluded that she does not have the powers for such regulation. I would be interested in hearing whether she thinks that there are opportunities to regulate the industry and costs. That might be a bold decision but, given the extent of funeral poverty in Scotland, we must look at the issue. I would be interested in her reflections on the matter.