A BBC investigation has uncovered a postcode lottery over the cremation of babies in Scotland.
A BBC investigation has uncovered a postcode lottery over the cremation of babies in Scotland.
Parents in Edinburgh have already been told that ashes from cremations at the city's Mortonhall Crematorium may have been buried without their knowledge.
But the BBC has now found evidence that whether parents receive ashes depends almost entirely on where they live.
Ashes were not returned in any of Aberdeen's cremations since 2008, while in Inverness 100% were returned.
Last December, it emerged that grieving parents had for decades been told by Edinburgh's Mortonhall Crematorium there would be no remains from the cremation of their baby, only to find out ashes had been secretly buried behind their backs.
It is thought the practice was carried out from the 1960s until 2011.
Now a BBC documentary, Scotland's Lost Babies, has revealed that the process of secretly disposing of babies' ashes was not confined to Edinburgh, with at least one other case in Fife.
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Despite her son being aged four months and weighing 22lbs, she was told by her funeral director that there would be no ashes. Carol said she was left devastated by the revelation.
Carol Howden Carol Howden was unaware that her son's ashes had been scattered at Dunfermline Crematorium
She said: "I told him 'I don't care, even if it's the tiniest little pinch of salt, I don't care. I need to have something'. And he said there wouldn't be anything. There would be no ashes whatsoever."
But BBC Scotland discovered that her son's ashes had in fact been dispersed on the crematorium grounds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22003573
