Burial regulations: guidance

1. Introduction

The Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 (the 2016 Act) provides Scottish Ministers with the powers to make regulations for or in connection with:

• the management, regulation and control by a burial authority of burial grounds
• applications to carry out burials
• and burial registers

The Scottish Ministers have made two sets of regulations in exercise of these powers. They are The Burial (Management) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (The “Burial Management Regulations”) and The Burial (Applications and Register) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 (“The Applications and Register Regulations”).

This guidance aims to help understanding of what the regulations do, what the legal requirements are and what is not permitted.

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