The Hydrolysis (Scotland) (No. 1) Regulations 2026 and the Hydrolysis (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2026 were considered by the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament on 5 January. The Regulations were subsequently passed by a vote in the Scottish Parliament on 21 January 2026.
Details about what the regulations do is available in our blog post from 3 December 2025.
- The No. 1 Regulations focus on the amendments to the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 (“the 2016 Act”), extending the 2016 Act to hydrolysis.
- The No. 2 Regulations are very similar to the Cremation (Scotland) Regulations 2019 and set out the procedures to be followed. The schedules contain the statutory application forms and registers.
The regulations will come into force on 2 March 2026. Anyone who wishes to become a hydrolysis authority will then be able to commence the process to do so, including obtaining the necessary consents from the appropriate organisations.
For further information or if you have any questions, please contact our team at burialandcremation@gov.scot