7. The Secretary of State shall make regulations as to the maintenance and inspection of crematoria and prescribing in what cases and under what conditions the burning of any human remains may take place, and directing the disposition or interment of the ashes, and prescribing the forms of the notices, certificates, and declarations to be given or made before any such burning is permitted to take place, such declarations to be made under and by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1835, and also regulations as to the registration of such burnings as have taken place. A copy of such regulations shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, if Parliament be then sitting, or, if not, then within three weeks after the beginning of the next ensuing Session of Parliament; and, after such regulations have lain for forty days before Parliament, then, unless within such forty days an address has been presented by one or other of the said Houses praying His Majesty to withhold his assent from such regulations or any part thereof, such regulations shall have the same effect as if they were enacted in this Act. All statutory provisions relating to the destruction and falsification of registers of burials, and the admissibility of extracts therefrom as evidence in courts and otherwise, shall apply to the register of burnings directed by such regulations to be kept.
[S. 7 was extended by Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, s. 10.]
8.(1) Every person who shall contravene any such regulation as aforesaid, or shall knowingly carry out or procure or take part in the burning of any human remains except in accordance with such regulations and the provisions of this Act, shall (in addition to any liability or penalty which he may otherwise incur) be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds. Provided that any person aggrieved by any conviction may appeal therefrom to quarter sessions.
(2) Every person who shall wilfully make any false representation, or sign or utter any false certificate, with a view to procuring the burning of any human remains, shall (in addition to any penalty or liability which he may otherwise incur) be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years.
(3) Every person who with intent to conceal the commission or impede the prosecution of any offence, procures or attempts to procure the cremation of any body, or with such intent makes any declaration or gives any certificate under this Act, shall be liable to conviction on indictment to imprisonment not exceeding five years.
