Meeting of the Parliament 22 March 2016
Amendment 18 is a structural change to the bill to move section 20 so that it sits with the sections relating to burial in a burial ground. It will be placed in the bill after section 15. It is a minor drafting change.
Amendments 19 and 22 are minor technical adjustments. They will ensure the system for applying for an exhumation and the issuing of guidance about burial authorities’ functions operate effectively.
There have been a number of amendments to the bill in relation to stillbirth, including one that provided for a definition of “still-birth” to be included in section 75, “Interpretation”. Amendment 28 removes the definition from section 47, and amendment 35 removes the definitions of “still-birth” and “still-born child” from section 47B. The definitions are provided in the interpretation section and are no longer needed in sections 47 and 47B.
Amendments 42 and 44 move sections 48 and 49, so that they appear after section 47. The amendments regroup the sections, following the insertion of new sections between sections 47 and 48 at stage 2.
Amendments 98 and 99 make minor changes to section 62, which confers powers on inspectors to enter certain types of premises. Amendment 98 will enable an inspector, if authorised by the Scottish ministers, to enter premises associated with the carrying out of functions of burial authorities and others. The approach will ensure that all activities of burial and cremation authorities and funeral directors are dealt with, by giving inspectors the power to carry out inspections wherever necessary. Amendment 99 makes a necessary consequential change.
Amendments 69 and 70 change references to “documents or records” to “documents, records or registers”. The effect is to make it an offence for a person to fail to comply with an instruction by an inspector to produce a document, record or register. The approach will ensure that an inspector can view information in each format, for the purposes of section 62.
Amendment 72 adds definitions of “still-birth” and “still-born child” to the interpretation section of the bill. Amendments 102 to 107 are minor, technical amendments to the table of repeals in schedule 2. Amendment 73 is a technical amendment, which ensures that the long title of the bill accurately reflects the bill’s content, including the amendments at stage 2 and proposed amendments at stage 3.
I move amendment 18.
Amendment 18 agreed to.
Section 22—Exhumation of human remains
Amendment 19 moved—[Maureen Watt]—and agreed to.
Section 23A—Exhumation register
Amendment 20 moved—[Maureen Watt]—and agreed to.
Section 34—Register of restored lairs
Amendment 21 moved—[Maureen Watt]—and agreed to.
Section 35—Guidance
Amendment 22 moved—[Maureen Watt]—and agreed to.
Section 37—Cremation authority: duties