Friday in the Commons ended with an adjournment debate on the provision of burial spaces. In a fairly brief speech, Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con) pointed out that in 1997 it had been estimated that there was only nine years’ supply of burial space in Inner London and that six Outer London boroughs would run out of space before 2016, though some had sufficient burial space for the next 100 years. The London Local Authorities Act 2007 had given London Boroughs power to disturb human remains in a grave where burial rights had been extinguished and where the intention was to increase the space for interments in the grave; however, no London Borough had yet adopted those powers. The supply of burial spaces had already been regarded as problematic in the mid-1990s; but he was concerned that local authorities appeared not to have adopted permitted grave reuse measures. Continue reading →