Dr Imogen Jones works with the Law Commission to hold public consultation event on New Funerary Methods

The Law Commission is engaging in a consultation that is part of a wide-ranging review into Burial, Cremation and New Funerary Methods.

New funerary methods are ways to break down a body other than burial, cremation or burial at sea. Although not currently regulated in England and Wales, some new funerary methods, such as alkaline hydrolysis and human composting, are available in other countries.

Consultation on New Funerary Methods

The Law Commission is an independent law commission set up by Parliament to keep the law or England and Wales under review and to recommend reform. The Law Commission has proposed a new framework that will enable the Government to regulate new funerary methods in the future, and has recently launched a consultation to gather the public’s view.

One of the two in-person consultation events will take place at the University of Leeds on Wednesday 16 July and is open to anyone with an interest in the subject. During the event, the Law Commission will explain its role as an independent law reform body and give an overview of the key issues and provisional proposals set out in the Consultation Paper. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and share your views.

Expertise

The School of Law’s Dr Jones is cited at paragraph. 6.41 of the Law Commission’s consultation paper. Her work regarding the treatment of deceased bodies is quoted, where she has argued that:

working with human remains engages particular ethical questions which highlight the importance of deceased bodies, and parts of bodies, not only as evidence relevant to answering legal questions but as the remains of a human person who had a history and shared relationships.

This quotation originates from her 2023 article Pathology and forensic science: Dignity, respect, and the dead body.

Dr Jones, Associate Professor in Law, is an expert on death and the law. She has previously submitted written evidence to the Justice Committee inquiry The Coroner Service: Follow-up under the previous Government, in which she discusses the resourcing and structure of the coronial system in England and Wales, focusing on its impact on bereaved families and medico-legal investigations.

She has recently edited a Handbook with Dr Marc Trabsky, which provides a comprehensive survey of contemporary scholarship on the intersections of law and death in the 21st century.

She writes an active blog, Dead Bodies and the Law, where she covers wide-ranging issues such as the Hull Legacy Scandal, body ‘bequests’, and autopsy backlogs. She recently appeared on the Talking about Bereavement Podcast to discuss her research on medico-legal death investigation and why respecting the dead matters. She also talked about death and the law on BBC R4’s The Law Show and the ‘Dead Serious’ podcast.

She says:

The Law Commission are committed to modernising how we dispose of the dead, whilst being mindful of the needs of the bereaved and treatment of the deceased person. I am excited to provide space for the public and practitioners to come together and be heard. This will ensure that everyone can feed into this important issue which will, in due course, affect us all.

The consultation event

This event is open to anyone with an interest in this area, including the public, experts in this area, potential operators of new funerary methods, those who are interested in using them, funeral directors, and others involved in the death care sector.

The in-person event in Leeds will be taking place:

Wednesday 16 July 2025

14:30 – 16:00

Seminar room G.13 Maurice Keyworth Building

Moorland Road Woodhouse Leeds LS6 1AN

Find details of other in-person and online consultation events at this link.