Part 1: Main Provisions Section 19: Confirmatory medical certificate not required for cremations: England and Wales
This section modifies regulation 16 of the Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008 so that the medical referee (a registered medical practitioner engaged by the cremation authority who authorises cremations) can authorise a cremation on the basis of the medical certificate from a single registered medical practitioner without the confirmatory medical certificate from a second registered medical practitioner. Removing this additional medical practitioner oversight simplifies the process in order to address the expected increased volume of deaths and the need to focus a reduced number of available medical practitioners on dealing with more priority cases whilst keeping a necessary level of safeguards in place.
	The section also makes minor and consequential amendments to the Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008 to facilitate the above.
	The territorial extent and application of this section is England and Wales only.