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37
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT.
1948.
BURIAL OR CREMATION OF THE DEAD (Section 50)
The provisions of the above Act require a local authority to make
arrangements for the burial or cremation of the body of any person in
respect of whom no other suitable action can be taken. This responsibility
has been operative since 5th July, 1948, on which date the National Health
Service Act, 1946, came into force.
In the early stages, the Borough Council dealt with all interments
of the nature indicated above, whether death occurred in local hospitals
or in the homes of residents. Subsequently however, the Minister of Health
reconsidered the application of this particular section of the National
Assistance Act, and decided that Hospital Committees and Boards should
arrange and pay for the burial or cremation of patients dying in hospitals
under the following circumstances:-
(a) Relatives not being traced;
(b) Relatives being traced, but who were not, immediately before a
patient's death, liable births (or her) maintenance under
Section 42(1) of the let, and are not willing to undertake the
arrangement of burial or cremation; and
(c) Relatives not being able to obtain a death grant under the
National Insurance Act, 1946, and unable to accept financial
responsibility for burial or cremation expenses.

Responsibility for the internent or cremation of the great majority of
persons who die in hospitals is, therefore, not falling upon a local
authority, as is evidenced by the foregoing figures. This Council deals
with such cases as may be referred to them by hospital authorities owing to
the failure of liable relatives to assume their responsibilities, whilst
the necessary arrangements are always made in respect of persons dying in
their own homes when it is obvious that exhaustive enquiries for next-of-kin
have proved unavailing.