View report page

50
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT. 1948
BURIAL OR CREMATION OF THE DEAD (Section 50)
In accordance with the provisions of the above Act, the Borough
Council is required 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.
During the period 5th July to 31st December, 1948, the Borough
Council was responsible for the interment of forty-three bodies. In March,
1949, 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 to his (or her) maintenance under
Section 42(1) 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 financial
responsibility for burial or cremation expenses.
This decision by the Minister of Health greatly eased the financial
burden on the Council in a direct sense, for in 1949 and 1950 this authority
was only called upon to arrange interments in 25 and 9 instances respectively.
Responsibility for the interment or cremation of the great majority of
persons who die in hospital is, therefore, not falling upon the local
authority, as will be evident from the figures given above0 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 made in respect of persons dying in
their own homes, when it is obvious that exhaustive enquiries have proved
of no avail.
Section 50(4.) of the Act provides that "an authority may recover from
the estate of the deoeased person or from any other person who for the
purposes of this Act was liable to maintain the deceased person immediately
before his (or her) death, expenses incurred". Generally speaking, it
has been found that the estates of deceased persons whose burials have become
the responsibility of the Council, are negligible in value.
During 1951, the Public Health Department, in accordance with the
terms of an annual contract with a local undertaker, arranged the
following interments:–
Adults 8 Children 1
Stillborn 1