National Committee on Infant Cremation: 2017 annual report

2. Committee Working Practices

Meetings

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

During the meeting on 28 October 2016, it was agreed that the scope of the Committee had changed as result of the publication of Dame Elish Angiolini’s report in June 2016. Members agreed that the majority of Lord Bonomy’s recommendations were now complete and that the Committee should widen its scope to oversee the implementation of Dame Elish’s National Cremation Investigation recommendations and to reflect the work being done on the wider burial and cremation developments set out in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. To reflect these changes the Committee was subsequently renamed the National Committee on Burial and Cremation in April 2017.

Alongside this and in line with the Terms of Reference agreed by the Committee, membership must be reviewed every two years. Following a successful membership review in Spring 2017, the first meeting of the National Committee on Burial and Cremation was held on 12 June 2017.

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. By June 2017 the Forms and Records subgroup – tasked with developing the new cremation application forms – had also completed their remit and the outstanding work was taken forward and completed by the Cremation Regulations Working Group. In turn, the final active group, the Training and Communications subgroup – developing training materials - subsequently completed its work and was stood down in December 2017.

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/NationalCommitteeonBurialandCremation/NationalCommitteeonInfantCremation

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 take this opportunity to record our appreciation and thanks to committee members for their input and involvement throughout. Their engagement has been invaluable in fully implementing Lord Bonomy’s recommendations and in turn raising the standards and awareness in the industry.