In her paper Post-Cremation Ashes: What’s The (Updated) Legal Position? Professor Heather Conway states: “…in England and Wales…the first thing is to distinguish between is who is authorised to collect the remains from the crematorium, and who has the legal right to the ashes once this has occurred”. However, matters became more uncertain subsequent to the these considerations in Re St. Mary the Virgin Greenham [2026] ECC Oxf 11.
The dilemma faced by the PCC was that a cremation urn had been left at Newbury Racecourse following a race meeting and despite extensive efforts by the racecourse, police and crematoria to trace relatives or the owner, no next of kin could be identified. Although the police thought they knew the family, the said family denied any link to the urn.