Reviewing the New Zealand Burials and Cremations Act and related legislation

What we did

In 2015 the New Zealand Law Commission released its report, ‘Death, Burial and Cremation: A new law for contemporary New Zealand’. Since 2015, Allen + Clarke has been providing support to the Ministry of Health on a series of proposed legislative reforms to New Zealand’s law as it relates to death, burial, cremation, and funerals.

How we did it

We analysed the Law Commission’s recommendations, stakeholder engagement, and development of policy options for reform, which was included in a detailed public consultation document. The consultation document explores problems with the current regulatory framework, identifies options for resolving these problems, and assesses the potential impacts of these options.

Following Cabinet approval to commence public consultation in November 2019, the team is currently leading consultation on the proposed changes. Noting the all-encompassing nature of the topic, the team is implementing a robust consultation plan which targets a wide range of diverse groups that together reflect New Zealand’s multicultural society. A wide range of tailored engagement techniques (e.g., meeting, online survey, media releases, presentations at relevant forums, dedicated inbox for queries, etc.) have been employed to maximise engagement with industry, central and local government, women, seniors, Māori, Pasifika, other ethnic and religious groups, as well as the general public. The team will use the information obtained from the consultation to inform the development of a regulatory reform package and the finalisation of the Impact Analysis.

The policy work has covered the full range of issues relating to death and dying in New Zealand, including:

  • Regulation of the funeral services sector (mandatory registration and price disclosure)
  • Certification of cause of death and auditing
  • Burial and cremation (including cemetery management)
  • New methods of body disposal (such as alkaline hydrolysis body disposal).

Benefits for the client

The public consultation document was approved by the Cabinet and published on the Ministry’s website in November 2019; https://consult.health.govt.nz/environmental-and-border-health/death-funerals-burial-and-cremation/.

This project is ongoing.