New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

PUBLIC HEALTH (DISPOSAL OF BODIES) REGULATION 2002 - REG 10

10 Retention of bodies by a funeral director

(1) A funeral director must not retain a body other than in a mortuary or holding room.

(2) A funeral director who keeps a body in a mortuary or holding room and who has reason to believe that not refrigerating the body will prejudice public health or amenity must put the body in a refrigerated body storage facility.

(3) However, a funeral director may cause the body to be removed from a refrigerated body storage facility:

(a) to another part of the mortuary, for a maximum of 8 hours a day for the purposes of preparing the body for burial or cremation, embalming the body or viewing of the body by mourners, or

(b) for the purpose of transporting the body for burial, interment or cremation, or

(c) for the purpose of transporting the body to another mortuary.

(4) A funeral director must not retain a body, other than a body that has been embalmed, for more than 7 working days after the issue of a death certificate, a burial permit issued by a coroner or a cremation permit issued by a coroner in relation to the body.

(5) The Director-General may approve, in a particular case, of a body being retained for a longer time than that permitted by this clause, subject to any conditions that the Director-General considers appropriate.

Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.