Significant improvements in Hazlehead Crematorium procedures

The city crematorium was heavily criticised after it emerged in 2013 that baby and adult ashes were routinely mixed together following an independent probe conducted by Dame Elish Angiolini.

Parents were often told that no ash was produced during the cremation process involving babies under the age of two and no remains were returned to those families.

A nationwide investigation was launched after it emerged that staff at Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh mixed the ashes of stillborn babies with those of adults before burying them in the garden without their families’ consent or knowledge.

An audit by Aberdeen City Council found up to 40 babies’ ashes may have been scattered in Hazlehead’s Garden of Remembrance without families being consulted.

Distraught parents called for more transparency from the local authority.

The council has since paid out more than £100,000 in compensation and former infrastructure chief Pete Leonard eventually resigned following a lengthy period of leave after his comments on the “slow cooking” of babies came to light.

The manager at the time of the scandal, Derek Snow, was also sacked in 2014.

By 2016 it appeared that practices at the facility had significantly improved but there was still concern following an inspection report that employees appeared to view themselves as “victims”.

But last May a report into the facility was said to have “restored public confidence”.

Robert Swanson, inspector of crematoria for Scotland, delivered a glowing review which found “no shortcomings” in the crematorium’s procedures and that staff had “overcome hurdles set by their predecessors”.