The Public Health Act 2010 and Public Health Regulation 2012 regulates the handling of bodies both by funeral industry professionals and by members of the public.

The regulation expresses rules rather than explaining how the deceased are to be disposed. It controls:

• premises and facilities for handling bodies
• waste disposal
• handling of bodies including embalming, viewing, the use of body bags and storage of bodies
• vehicles
• restriction of burials
• exhumations
• crematories and cremations
• maintenance of registers.

On this page

1. Policy directives
2. Guidelines
3. Fact sheets
4. Infection control procedures
5. Forms
6. Tools
7. Registers

Policy directives

• PD2013_048 - Burials - Exemptions Public Health Regulation 2012 for Community and Religious Reasons
• PD2013_045 - Shallow Burial
• PD2013_046 - Exhumation of Human Remains
• PD2008_012 - Destitute Persons - Cremation or Burial

Guidelines

• COVID-19 – Handling of bodies by funeral directors and cemetery staff
• GL2013_016 - Guidance on Burying a Body on Private Land - Public Health Regulation 2012
• GL2013_015 - Retention of Bodies - Approval to Retain Bodies for Longer than Permitted
• GL2013_014 - Cremation of More Than One Body Simultaneously
• Agreed procedure to issue a transit certificate for transportation of a body overseas

Fact sheets

• Cremation ashes
• Handling of bodies by funeral directors during an influenza pandemic
• Flow chart - NSW cremation and the use of interstate forms

Infection control procedures

Under clause 57 of the Public Health Regulation 2012 a person must, when carrying out any procedure on a body, comply with the guidelines specified in Part B of the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare as published by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Forms

Notifications

• Notification of Mortuary (Clause 89)
• Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW keeps a register of cemeteries and crematoria. Email ccnsw.register@cemeteries.nsw.gov.au to update or add to the register.

Medical referee

• Medical Referee Procedure to Appoint and Application Form
• Medical Referees Register

Cremation

• Application for Permission for Cremation (other than Still-Born Children) with Statutory Declaration - Clause 79(1) - 2012
• Application for Permission for Cremation of Still-Born Child with Statutory Declaration - Clause 80(1)
• Attending Practitioner's Cremation Certificate - Clause 81
• Attending Practitioner's Cremation Certificate - Clause 81 (hospital use - sample only)
• Medical Referee's Cremation Permit (other than Still-Born Children) - Clause 82(1)
• Coroner's Cremation Permit - Clause 83(1)
• Medical Referee's Permit for Cremation of Body of Still-Born Child - Clause 84(1)
• Register of Cremations - Clause 86(1)

Exhumation

• Application to Exhume Remains - Clause 70(2)
• Application for Exemption of Documentation: Cremation of Human Remains, Clause 78(4)

Tools

• Anatomy Audit Tool
• Cremation or Burial of Deceased Destitute Persons Flow Chart
• Mortuary - Audit Tool Public Health Regulation 2012 - Part 2 Facilities
• Mortuary - Audit Tool Local Government (General) Regulation 2005, Schedule 2, Part 4

Registers

• Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW register
• Mortuary register by LHD
• Mortuary register - alphabetical