17th June 2007, 12:12 PM
David (Bajrhost) said:
"....on this new act". This is incorrect it is not a new Act which would have gone through a process of consultation, revision and debate.
The situation arises over re-interpretation of existing law not new law or even new regulation by the new MoJ.
At present the consultation process for a new act is underway and a summary of the consultation is available on
http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/buriallaw/...#conspaper
which states for example
"One of the recommendations of that report was that there should be a review of the legislation surrounding burial and cemeteries. In its response, the Government agreed that there was a need for all aspects of burial law to be reviewed, and proposed that the issues to be considered included rationalisation of regulation across the public and private sectors, the management of cemeteries, enforcement of the legislation, and exhumation or disturbance after burial."
Sebastin Payne suggests the following for the current situation:
* in many cases, archaeologists and developers may no longer be required to obtain licenses under the Burial Act 1857, and may be free to proceed, at least so far as burial legislation is concerned, without statutory constraints on the removal, study, sampling and retention of buried human remains.
The point is that the MoJ are saying in some cases that they donot have the powers to either authourise or prohibit the excavation. The issue of the licence meant in fact there was certainty that the excavation and analysis of burials was entirely lawful.
Without that licence and associated conditions it is now less clear cut than previously that the archaeological excavation of an ancient burial was 100% lawful.
What is needed is clarification from MoJ or a legal precedent. EH have said that "MoJ intends to ensure as far as possible that any disruption to the work of archaeologists and developers is kept to the minimum"
Peter Wardle
"....on this new act". This is incorrect it is not a new Act which would have gone through a process of consultation, revision and debate.
The situation arises over re-interpretation of existing law not new law or even new regulation by the new MoJ.
At present the consultation process for a new act is underway and a summary of the consultation is available on
http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/buriallaw/...#conspaper
which states for example
"One of the recommendations of that report was that there should be a review of the legislation surrounding burial and cemeteries. In its response, the Government agreed that there was a need for all aspects of burial law to be reviewed, and proposed that the issues to be considered included rationalisation of regulation across the public and private sectors, the management of cemeteries, enforcement of the legislation, and exhumation or disturbance after burial."
Sebastin Payne suggests the following for the current situation:
* in many cases, archaeologists and developers may no longer be required to obtain licenses under the Burial Act 1857, and may be free to proceed, at least so far as burial legislation is concerned, without statutory constraints on the removal, study, sampling and retention of buried human remains.
The point is that the MoJ are saying in some cases that they donot have the powers to either authourise or prohibit the excavation. The issue of the licence meant in fact there was certainty that the excavation and analysis of burials was entirely lawful.
Without that licence and associated conditions it is now less clear cut than previously that the archaeological excavation of an ancient burial was 100% lawful.
What is needed is clarification from MoJ or a legal precedent. EH have said that "MoJ intends to ensure as far as possible that any disruption to the work of archaeologists and developers is kept to the minimum"
Peter Wardle