New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

PUBLIC HEALTH (DISPOSAL OF BODIES) REGULATION 2002 - REG 3

3 Definitions

(1) In this Regulation:
"attending practitioner", in relation to a dead person, means a medical practitioner who attended the person immediately before, or during the illness terminating in, the death of the person.
"body" means a body of a dead person.
"body preparation room" means that part of a mortuary that is used for the preparation of bodies for burial or cremation.
"burial" includes putting in a vault.
"cemetery authority" means the person or body of persons (including a council) by whom the cemetery’s operations are directed.
"chief executive officer", in relation to a hospital, has the same meaning as it has in Division 2 of Part 7 of the Act.
"coroner" means a person who exercises or performs the functions of a coroner in accordance with the Coroners Act 2009 .
"cremation" includes the disposal of the body of a dead person by alkaline hydrolysis.
"cremation authority", in relation to a crematory, means the person or body of persons by whom the crematory’s operations are directed.
"crematory" includes premises in which bodies are disposed of by alkaline hydrolysis.
"crematory retort" means the receptacle into which the body of a dead person is placed for cremation.
"dead person" includes a still-born child.
"death certificate" means a certificate given by a medical practitioner as to the cause of death.
"disinfectant" means a hospital grade disinfectant as defined in clause 2 of the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990 of the Commonwealth.
"embalming" means the process of preserving a body by means of the removal of body fluids and arterially injecting the body with embalming fluids, or other means approved by the Director-General.
"exhumation" means the removal of a dead person’s remains (not being ashes) from a grave or vault, but does not include their removal from one vault for immediate transfer to another vault in the same cemetery.
"funeral director" means a person (other than the operator of a mortuary transport service) who, in the conduct of the person’s business, engages, for the purpose of burial, cremation or transport, in the collection, transport, storage, preparation or embalming of bodies or engages in the conduct of exhumations.
"holding room" means a room that includes refrigerated body storage facilities for at least 2 adult bodies but does not include a body preparation room.
"hospital" has the same meaning as it has in Division 2 of Part 7 of the Act.
"List A disease" means any one or more of the following conditions:

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Hepatitis C

Human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV infection).

"List B disease" means any one or more of the following diseases:

Diphtheria

Plague

Respiratory anthrax

Smallpox

Tuberculosis

Any viral haemorrhagic fever (including Lassa, Marburg, Ebola and Congo-Crimean fevers).

"medical referee" means a person qualified or appointed under clause 42 to be a medical referee.
"mortuary" means premises that are used, or intended to be used, for the preparation or storage of bodies as part of the arrangements for their burial or cremation, but does not include any premises (such as a hospital) in which bodies may be temporarily stored pending their transfer to a mortuary.
"mortuary transport service" means a service that, for fee, gain or reward, transports bodies for funeral directors.
"nearest surviving relative" means:

(a) in relation to a still-born child-a parent, or sibling at or above the age of 16 years, of the child, and

(b) in relation to a dead person who is not a still-born child-the spouse or de facto partner of the dead person immediately before death, a parent of the dead person, a child at or above the age of 16 years of the dead person or any relative of the dead person who was residing with the dead person when he or she died.

Note: “De facto partner” is defined in section 21C of the Interpretation Act 1987 .

"refrigerated body storage facility" means a storage facility for bodies maintained at between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius.
"the Act" means the Public Health Act 1991 .

(2) A reference in this Regulation to a publication is a reference to the publication as in force for the time being.