National Committee on Infant Cremation: 2016 annual report

2. Committee Working Practices

Meetings

The National Committee on Infant Cremation has met on five occasions to date: 9 October 2014; 26 January 2015; 11 June 2015; 13 November 2015 and 28 October 2016.

As well as the main Committee, there were originally five separate Sub-Groups set up: Cremation Practice; Shared Cremations; Training and Communications; Forms and Record-Keeping and Policy and Code of Practice. In 2016, three of the five subgroups completed their remits and subsequently stood down. The Forms and Records subgroup - tasked with developing the new cremation application forms - and the Training and Communications subgroups - developing training materials - are the only subgroups still ongoing.

Transparency and Communication

The National Committee has its own dedicated webpages which are available via the following link:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/BurialsCremation/NCIC

The webpages include the approved meeting minutes of the Committee and its Sub-Groups and also a separate 'Resources' section, where Committee and/or related outputs are collated and available. This includes all key documents mentioned within this report.

Following the publication of Dame Elish Angiolini's Report on the National Cremation Investigation, the website was updated to include a link to the original report and the Scottish Government's response. These documents can be found at the following link:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Policy/BurialsCremation/NationalInvestigation

Attendance and Participation

Meeting attendance and participation levels have been high since the establishment of the National Committee. We would like to record our appreciation and thanks to committee members for their input and involvement throughout. Their engagement has been invaluable in implementing the Lord Bonomy recommendations and in turn raising the standards and awareness in the industry.