Re-use of graves in England – the faculty jurisdiction

Exhumation and the re-use of graves under the CofE’s faculty jurisdiction

Background

An earlier post reviewed the statutory provisions associated with the re-use of graves in the capital and the possible reasons for councils in Greater London not making more use of the powers in the London Local Authorities Act 2007. It has been suggested that his may be in part due to a perception that some of the issues surrounding re-use are seen as problematic, [e.g. the difficulties involved in establishing who owns the monuments, and similar issues, and partly the administrative complexity of identifying grave ownership]. However, in practice a significant number of the graves that have been reused come within a different legislative regime – the faculty jurisdiction of the Church of England. In 2014, the then Minister of Justice  Continue reading