France changes its deadline rules for burials and cremations

A recent decree has changed the maximum length of time that can pass before a deceased person must be buried or cremated in France.

Previously, rules stated that a person’s body must be buried or cremated within six days of the creation of a death certificate (excluding bank holidays and Sundays). 

However, the decree of July 11 (found here in the Journal Officiel) has prolonged this to 14 days, which include Sundays and public holidays as part of the overall count.

The change has been made “to remedy the growing increase in requests to the prefectures for derogations [waivers] to these deadlines, based both on cyclical causes, such as episodes of excess mortality observed at certain periods; and on structural causes, such as the increase in requests for cremation that the crematoria are not always able to meet".

In cases where an investigation into the death is taking place (suicides, murders, etc), the body must be buried or cremated within 14 days of the burial authorisation being granted by the authorities, and not the creation of the death certificate.

Rules were slightly flexible before 

Prior to the change, it was possible for the six-day period to be extended via a dérogation, usually handled by the funeral director responsible for the ceremony.

Initially only supposed to be offered in exceptional circumstances (such as family arriving from far away), these became more common as crematoria failed to accommodate for the number of people within to be cremated.

The extension of the deadlines means there is now “a balance between public health concerns, which require that the funerals of the deceased be provided for within a reasonable time, and the need to ensure that requests for dérogations are exceptional in nature,” it says in the decree.

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