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LCQ16: Permits for urgent interment
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     Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Cyd Ho Sau-lan in the Legislative Council today (January 7):

Question:

     According to the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance (Cap. 174), save for a permit for the removal and burial of a dead body ("permit") issued by an officer in charge of a police station, no person shall remove any dead body before the issuance of a certificate of registration of death ("death certificate").  It is learnt that owing to certain religious reasons, some members of the public wish to transfer from hospitals the dead bodies of their relatives, right after the deaths of the latter due to illness, to funeral parlours for conducting religious funeral ceremonies thereat.  However, when their relatives' deaths fall outside the office hours of the Deaths Registry, they will have to wait until the following day to apply for death certificates.  On the other hand, if the deceased persons are not Muslims, the Police will refuse to issue a permit.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the details of the guidelines for the Police to issue permits;

(b) whether the Police will approve the applications for permits submitted on religious grounds in respect of deceased persons who are not Muslims; if not, of the reasons for that;

(c) of the respective numbers of applications for permits which were received, approved and rejected by the Police last year, with a breakdown of the applications concerned by the reason for rejection; and

(d) whether the authorities will consider authorising, apart from an officer in charge of a police station, officers in charge of a hospital to issue such permits, so as to enable the relatives of the deceased to obtain the dead bodies directly from hospitals for conducting funeral ceremonies, as well as to reduce the demand for dead bodies storage facilities in mortuaries?
  

Reply:

President,

     Our specific reply to the question raised by the Hon Cyd Ho Sau-lan is as follows:

(a) & (b) Under section 16(1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance (Cap. 174) (the Ordinance), provided that where interment is urgent and it is not possible to procure promptly a certificate of registration of death issued under section 17 of the Ordinance or a Coroner¡¦s order authorising burial or cremation under the same provision, the inspector or other officer in charge at the nearest police station (i.e. the Divisional police station for the Division where the hospital certifying the death is located) may issue a Permit for the Removal and Burial of a Dead Body (the Permit) upon the receipt of a report.

     The sole purpose of issuing such Permits is to meet the requests made by members of the public outside the opening hours of the births and deaths registries in various districts for interment.  According to the Police¡¦s guidelines for the issue of the Permit, applicants are normally referred to an appropriate births and deaths registry.  However, for urgent cases which cannot wait until the registry opens, an Inspectorate Officer from the police station or, in the absence of any Inspectorate Officer inside the police station at the material time, the Duty Officer will interview the applicant to ascertain the relationship between the applicant and the deceased, the reasons for urgent interment (for example, religious reason) and the interment arrangements, and request the applicant to produce the Medical Certificate of the Cause of Death.  The Police will then make an enquiry with the hospital concerned to confirm that there are no suspicious circumstances in respect of the death of the person.  If the Police are satisfied with the validity of, and the reasons for, the application after considering the above factors, they will issue a Permit.
  
     Based on the Police¡¦s experience in handling applications for the Permit, such applications usually relate to deceased persons who are followers of religions (e.g. Muslims) the creeds of which require the bodies of followers to be disposed of promptly after death.  When handling applications for the Permit, the Police will take into account the specific circumstances of each application and decide whether to approve the application after considering the afore-mentioned factors.

(c) The Police have maintained relevant statistics since May 2008.  As at December 31, 2008, the Police have received a total of six applications for such Permit, all of which were approved.

(d) The legislation and arrangements currently in place are capable of handling the small number of cases where urgent interment of the deceased is applied for outside the working hours of births and deaths registries.  The Administration is of the view that presently there is no imminent need to make legislative amendments to authorise persons other than officers in charge at police stations to issue the Permits.

Ends/Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:46

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