Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Special Protection Zone regulations on the ability of small towns to establish new burial grounds; and what assessment he has made of the merits of providing (a) guidance and (b) funding support for communities facing (i) environmental and (ii) planning barriers to cemetery provision.

Source Protection Zones are sensitive areas because the underlying groundwater contributes towards public drinking water supplies.

To protect those supplies from pollution, unless exempt, new cemeteries must operate under an environmental permit and the Environment Agency has published guidance on this, including information needed to support a planning application. The Environment Agency has recently consulted on a proposal to develop simpler, cheaper, permitting options for cemeteries, which could lead to cost-saving for eligible operators.

The Government has asked the Law Commission to review the legal framework governing burial and cremation, including concerns raised about the long-term availability of burial space. They anticipate publishing the report on their findings in late 2025. The Government will consider the Law Commission’s recommendations once these have been published and will respond in due course.”

For context, the Government does not have operational day-to-day responsibility for burial grounds, which are managed locally, and there is no statutory duty on local authorities to provide burial facilities. Although Government (DCA/MoJ) does provide Guidance for Burial Ground Managers (which includes issues to consider when planning burial space) and Guidance for Operators of Natural Burial Grounds neither address this specific issue.