Local Plans (Burial Space) Bill [HL]
House of Lords · Lords Chamber · 3 Jul 2026 · 11 speeches · Official Report
Second Reading
Moved by
That the Bill be read a second time.
My Lords, we often hear that death is one of the few certainties in life, yet the question of where people may be laid to rest is all too often treated as an afterthought in our planning system. This Bill seeks to address that omission through a simple but important principle: every community should plan responsibly for the burial needs of its population. At present, local authorities have powers to provide cemeteries, but they are under no statutory duty to ensure that sufficient burial space exists. In many areas, burial provision depends on a patchwork of local authority cemeteries, faith organisations and private providers, with no strategic assessment of long-term demand. The result is that, in some parts of England, burial capacity is becoming increasingly constrained, placing pressure on bereaved families and on the communities they serve. The Bill does not seek to dictate where burial grounds should be located; nor does it impose unrealistic obligations on local authorities. Instead, it asks local planning authorities to do what they already do for housing, schools, transport and green infrastructure: assess future need, incorporate that assessment into their local plans, and publish a long-term strategy for meeting any shortfall in burial capacity. Planning is about looking ahead. We routinely plan decades into the future for homes, employment, land and public services. It seems only right that we should also plan for the final resting places that communities will...
My Lords, tomorrow, we will commemorate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, which established the United States as a republic-it is still, as far as I am aware, supposed to be a republic. I mention that because one of its founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, as the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, alluded to, was famous for having said that there are only two things in life that are certain: death and taxes. This is a Bill about death, or more particularly about where our dead bodies are put to rest. Throughout human history, the way we deal with our dead bodies has a great deal to say about our humanity. I read recently that there is now archaeological evidence that the Neanderthals had burial practices, and of course we know a great deal about civilizations such as the Egyptians and the Chinese. More recently, HS2 unearthed a great deal of knowledge about the way in which people were buried in the 17th century, when the line was built through central London. This is a Bill that the House should very much take seriously, even if it is not everybody’s cup of tea. I commend the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, for sponsoring the Bill. He was kind enough to draw it to my attention, for which I thank him, and he adroitly made his case for the Bill today. I congratulated him on having been successful in the lottery for Private Members’ Bills. As someone who has myself piloted a Private Member’s Bill through on to the statute book, I wish him every success. If you...
My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, on coming so high in the ballot; I hope his luck continues in his dealings with the Government on the Bill. I am one of those who support his efforts. I, too, would have welcomed the presence of some bishops today, given the nature of the subject. The Church of England probably has the majority of the acreage of burial ground around the country. My interest in this comes from the fact that I am in my 80s and, in a sense, I am in the waiting room. I have long expressed a desire to be buried in the churchyard of St Paul’s Church in Alverthorpe, in Yorkshire. It is the parish of my birth and family roots, but space is limited there. With the help of my friend, Phillip Collins, who has used genealogy, WikiTree and AI, we have managed to trace a whole range of my forebears there. We think that some of the graves in which they are buried are not full. So there is an opportunity-a green opportunity, I would say-for me to be buried in one of those graves. I would like to add to the suggestion from the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, that we should have an extra section at the end about the full use of existing cemeteries around the country. There are acres and acres of them. Given that we now have AI and other methods of genealogy, we can make a connection between graves and ancestors. Given what my noble friend Lord Stansgate has just said about someone being willing to pay £24,000 to find a burial ground, this is...
My Lords, I am also very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, for bringing forward this Bill, and for the clarity of its purpose, which he spoke about. This is a thoughtful and timely proposal for addressing an issue that other noble Lords have raised, which is clearly important. I declare my interest as a councillor in central Bedfordshire. Not unsurprisingly, space in cemeteries is a key issue. In one of my villages, Westoning, there are six spaces left in a village of around 2,000 souls. The noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe, said that he is in the waiting room; we are all in the waiting room-some of us just wish to wait a little bit longer than maybe he does. That point is very pertinent for some of my residents, who are very conscious that they want to be buried in their local village. For the 17 years I have been there, I have been helping them try to find a site, but it is not necessarily easy. You would have thought that in a village in the middle of the green belt there would be space, but when you take account of land ownership and in my area the risk of flooding in particular-obviously, you have to have a water table well below the depth at which you bury people-it is not simple. However, it is very important, and I recognise that. Responsibility for burial provision rests primarily with local authorities. I am not quite sure of the case in London but, in many rural areas, the actual delivery is done by parish councils, religious bodies and...
My Lords, I will resist the temptation to talk about last thing on a Friday being the graveyard slot. This is a very serious topic. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, for tabling this Private Member’s Bill and for giving me the opportunity to meet with him yesterday to talk through what he wanted to do and the principles around the Bill. I also thank my noble friends Lord Stansgate and Lord Brooke for speaking to me in advance of the Bill coming before the House. I start with a phrase that the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, used: that every family should have access to a dignified burial close to their community. That was a very important phrase to someone who has been involved with local government for as many years as I have, and I know he has. It is very important that we keep our focus on that. I recognise the importance of the provision of burial space. I have some reservations around the necessity for the Bill, which I will come to in a moment. The Bill as proposed would require local planning authorities to include suitable provision for burial space in their local plans and put that on the statute book as a separate issue to other issues that come forward for planning. The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the policy expectations for what should be considered in the development of the plan, including local plans and in decision-making. The framework for what should be considered is set through policy and not statute, to offer the necessary flexibility to...
My Lords, I thank everyone for their constructive comments. During the debate, my phone has been quite busy, particularly on the question of the attendance or not of the Lords spiritual. I have actually had a message from them, which I would like to share with your Lordships’ House. It says, “We apologise for this because it is ordination season and the majority of Lords spiritual are in their dioceses or ordaining new clergy. However, this does not reflect their lack of interest; actually they are very supportive of the Bill itself and welcome an opportunity to discuss taking it forward”. Similarly, my colleagues at the South Yorkshire Muslim Burial Trust are watching, as are many others. Clearly, as we have heard, this issue goes across communities and faiths and, as we also heard, this Bill is serious. We have talked about all being in the waiting room. The fact is that we hope many of us will still be there to make sure that we see the change that this Bill requires. Clearly, there may be disagreement between us on how we get to the destination, but it is clear from the debate, whether from the comments of the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, the noble Lords, Lord Brooke and Lord Jamieson, or the Minister, that we have all acknowledged there is an issue. There is a problem: how do we deal with it? As I said, it was the luck of the draw: I put my faith in that lottery and my name came out with this Bill. I know that other noble Lords, particularly the noble Viscount, Lord...
Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
House adjourned at 2.14 pm.