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NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT, 1948.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD (Section 50 of above Act)
The provisions of this Act require a local authority to arrange for the
burial or cremation of the body of any person in respect of whom no other
suitable action can be taken. This duty has been so delegated since 5th
July, 1948, at which time the National Health Service Act of 1946 became
operative.
For approximately the first nine months, the Public Health Department
dealt with all interments of the nature indicated above, whether death
occurred in local hospitals or the homes of residents. The application of
Section 50 of the Act was, however, reconsidered by the Minister of Health in
March, 1949, and as a result it was decided that Hospital Committees and Boards
should arrange and pay for the burial and cremation of patients dying in
hospitals under the following circumstances:-
(a) Relatives nob being traced;
(b) Relatives being traced, but who were not, immediately before a
patient's death, liable for his (or her) maintenance under
Section 42(l) of the Act, 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 responsibility for burial
or cremation expenses.

The local authority deals with such cases as may be referred to them by
hospitals when liable relatives fail to accept their responsibilities, whilst
necessary arrangements are always made in respect of persons dying in their
own homes when exhaustive enquiries have established the non-existence of
next-of-kin.
No cremations have, during the years set out above, been carried out by
the Council. Whilst it may be that investigations definitely point to the
non-existence of any surviving relatives, there is always the remote possibility
that at some future date a member of the deceased's family will pursue enquiries*
with the result that the Council might be challenged as to the action taken in
this respect.