Care of Historic Human Remains Consultation

The consultation period was 28 July to 29 October 2004.

This consultation paper looks at, among other things, current laws relating to collections of human remains in UK museums and claims for their repatriation.

The consultation period was 28 July to 29 October 2004.

The document, jointly published with the Welsh Assembly, is based on the recommendations of the Working Group on Human Remains in a report published in November 2003 (updated 9 February 2007).

The main points of the consultation are:

Whether current laws relating to the holding of human remains by UK museums, taken together with the new provisions of the Human Tissues Bill, are sufficient;
Whether museums holding human remains should be subject to some form of Code of Practice or regulation;
Whether the Government should establish a Human Remains Advisory Panel to mediate claims for repatriation; and
How museums should handle claims for restitution of human remains and what model of consent should be adopted in dealing with any claims.

Care of Historic Human Remains (PDF 466kb)

This consultation has now ended. The consultation period was 28 July to 29 October 2004.

If you have any queries regarding this consultation please contact us by:

Email: Human.Remains@Culture.gsi.gov.uk or

Post:
Cultural Property Unit
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
UK

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the National Assembly for Wales intend to publish the responses to this document. Normally, the name and address (or part of the address) of its author are published along with the response, as this gives credibility to the consultation exercise. If you do not wish to be identified as the author of your response, please state this expressly in writing to us and we will remove your name and address from the published response.

If you wish to pursue a complaint about the process of consultation on this paper, please contact Liz Sweet, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5DH, liz.sweet@culture.gsi.gov.uk

These documents are available online in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.

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