Scottish Ministers have made the Burial and Cremation (Applications and Registers) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 (SSI 2025/360). The instrument was made on 20 November 2025, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 24 November 2025, and comes into force on 2 March 2026.
This instrument amends the Cremation (Scotland) Regulations 2019 and the Burial (Applications and Register) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 under powers in the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. In line with section 104 of the 2016 Act, Ministers consulted cremation and burial authorities before making the changes.
Regulation 2 revises regulation 8(3) of the 2019 Cremation Regulations to mandate category‑specific application forms and documentation. For adults and children, applications must use new Form A1, complete sections 1 to 5, and be accompanied by the specified supporting papers. Equivalent requirements now apply for still‑born children (Form A2) and for fetuses where an individual arranges the cremation (Form A3).
Where a person other than an individual arranges a fetal cremation under Part 3 of the 2016 Act, the application must use new Form A4 and complete sections 1 to 3. Local authority applications made under section 87 of the 2016 Act must use new Form A5 and complete sections 1 to 6.
Form A6 now covers cremation of body parts following a post‑mortem examination not conducted for or under the procurator fiscal. It also covers cremations following anatomical examination authorised under section 4(2) or 4A(1) of the Anatomy Act 1984: for a whole body, sections 1 and 4 of Form A6 must be completed; for body parts, sections 2 and 4 are required. Where body parts arise from anatomical examination and the deceased died before 14 February 1988, new Form A7 applies and requires sections 1 and 2.
Regulation 3 replaces prescribed register forms with defined data requirements. For whole‑body cremations, the register must record the crematorium, the cremation authority, cremation number and date, the deceased’s name, sex, dates of birth and death, what happened to the ashes, and funeral director contact details where used. For body‑part cremations, the register must additionally identify the parts and, where applicable, record the date and place of burial, cremation or hydrolysis of the body.
For stillbirth and pregnancy loss, the register must state whether the cremation relates to pregnancy loss or stillbirth, record any name given, and, where a health authority applies, include its unique identification number and the applicant’s name and business address. It must also record whether ashes were recovered and their subsequent arrangements, and any funeral director details.
Regulation 4 substitutes the A1–A7 application forms in the 2019 Regulations with new versions and replaces Schedules 9 to 11 to reflect the revised register data sets. A minor textual change to regulation 15(3) is also made to improve clarity.
Transitional provisions are explicit. Where a cremation application was submitted before 2 March 2026 but the cremation occurs on or after that date, the pre‑amendment application provisions continue to apply; the new forms are not mandatory for those in‑progress cases. For cremations that take place before 2 March 2026, the previous register requirements continue unchanged.
The 2024 Burial Applications Regulations are also amended. Regulation 7 corrects drafting in regulation 3(2)(a)(v) to read ‘where the body…’, and regulation 8 replaces Forms BF1 to BF7 across Schedules 1 to 7 with updated versions. Regulation 9 provides a matching transition: if a burial application was submitted before 2 March 2026 but the burial is carried out on or after that date, the unamended 2024 Regulations continue to govern that burial.
The Explanatory Note states that the forms have been updated to improve usability and that guidance notes have been removed. For registers, prescribed forms are replaced with clear data fields to be captured. Cremation and burial authorities should now schedule updates to application packs, electronic case‑management systems and register templates, revise local procedures, and brief staff and funeral directors ahead of the 2 March 2026 commencement.
The instrument is signed by Jenni Minto on behalf of the Scottish Ministers at St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh, on 20 November 2025. Organisations affected should align internal timetables so new A‑series and BF‑series forms are in circulation for applications made on or after 2 March 2026, while continuing to process pre‑commencement applications under the existing rules.