Museum Policies

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Currently, all British museums are given accreditation by the government funded Museums Libraries and Archives Council. No museum is allowed to hold Human Remains unless they are accredited or were officially registered under older schemes.

All registered and accredited museums in Britain must have various documents. These include:

  1. Acquisitions Policy
  2. Disposal Policy

These documents, together with a Collections strategy, outline the standards by which the museum aims to treat all the objects in its care, including human remains. The Freedom of Information Act gives everyone the right to see these documents in order to judge whether a museum is adequately meeting their own standards.

The Care of Human Remains in Museums (Updated Oct 05)

Museums’ Human Remains and Other Policies

The museums’ policies can be found online. They may also be found within our YLM database under the entry for the relevant museum.  The comments in our database refer to that issue of Policy that was available at the time of writing.  HAD cannot be held responsible for the content of museums’ policies.