Lord Sheikh:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provisions are in place to ensure that Muslim communities are able to bury their deceased at weekends.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Muslim communities are able to bury their deceased immediately after death.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): Guidance published in 2006 encouraged burial ground managers to explore the local demand for out-of-hours working, especially where required for religious reasons, and to ensure that every effort was made to deal with individual applications. When deaths need to be reported to coroners-because the cause of death is violent, unnatural or of unknown cause-similar efforts are made to ensure, wherever possible, that the body of the person who has died is released as promptly as possible for burial.