Burial

(asked on 24th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of proposed reforms to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 on small burial grounds across the country.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 29th March 2022

From September to December 2021, Defra held a public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR). The consultation proposed that the EPR should be amended to allow the Environment Agency to issue an exemption from permitting for small-scale cemeteries in low environmental risk settings. The consultation set out a draft of these exemption conditions that defined the circumstances where cemeteries could be exempt from needing a groundwater activity permit.

The Government assessed that the introduction of exemption conditions for small scale cemeteries would have only a small impact on the sector because there are no fees associated with this new approach. If an operator can comply with the rules as set out in the exemption conditions, they do not need to apply for or pay for a permit. There would be some small familiarisation costs incurred, but the exemption conditions and accompanying guidance will be concise and easy to understand for a non-technical expert.

We received a range of responses during the consultation, including from the cemetery sector. The Government is reviewing consultation responses and is undertaking further stakeholder engagement to assess the proposed cemetery exemption conditions accordingly. Our Government response to the consultation will be published in due course.

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