PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Burial (28 August 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Government's policy is on non-English inscriptions on tombstones in (a) local authority maintained cemeteries, (b) faith and communities cemeteries and (c) other burial sites.

Asked by:
Feryal Clark (Labour)

The Government has published guidance on the management of burial grounds. This sets out the general expectation that managers should always have regard for equal treatment policies and practice in the provision of burial services and emphasises that consideration should be given to unintended consequences or discrimination which may arise in a variety of ways, including in the allowed wording of commemorative inscriptions.

Section 13 of the Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977 provides that a bishop of the Church of England may object to, and have removed, any inscription on a tombstone or other memorial in ground consecrated to the Church of England within any cemetery (including its chapel). This reflects similar statutory provision relating to tombstones located within Church of England churches and their churchyards.

Answered by:
Alex Chalk (Conservative)
8 September 2020