Public health funerals

Public Health Funeral and Arrangement

There are occasions when people die and there are no relatives or friends available to arrange their funeral. In such cases, Havant Borough Council’s Environmental Health team take on this role to fulfil a legal obligation under Section 46 of the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984.

Attempt to contact relatives

In each case, before the funeral arrangements are finalised, attempts are made to establish whether there are relatives who wish to organise the funeral themselves.

These may include.

• Family (close or extended) friends, neighbours, associations etc
• Searching of the deceased's property for relevant paperwork/information

Cremated remains

Cremated remains of the deceased are usually returned to loved one.  If this is not possible, ashes will be scattered in the garden of remembrance unless other specific instructions are found amongst the deceased's possessions or in a will.

Burials

For burials, an interment will take place in a non-private grave.

Funerals undertaken by Havant Borough Council 

The funerals Havant Borough Council has undertaken are:

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 names and addresses have been withheld under the following two exemptions:

Section 31(1)(a) - Law enforcement

Havant Borough Council will not disclose address details into the public domain where they relate to deceased’s empty properties as the property is likely to be unoccupied and might still contain the deceased's personal papers and effects.

The council does not believe it to be in the public interest to disclose information relating to empty properties prior to a full and thorough securing of the assets of the estate as undertaken by Treasury Solicitors.

Additionally, giving out the names of the deceased taken with other information easily available i.e. the electoral roll, telephone directory entry, 192.com etc would make identifying properties fairly easy.

Section 21 – Information accessible to applicant by other means

Although confirmation that Havant Borough Council holds some of the information requested, the council does not accept that it holds the information in its own right, but on behalf of the Treasury Solicitors department.

All deaths have to be registered with the Register Office:

• Hampshire Registration Offices
• Havant Plaza Registration Office