Rules on cremating body parts are to be changed to help the parents of children whose organs have been retained by hospitals, the government has announced.

Under the change, due to take effect next month, families will be able to cremate hearts and other organs removed during post mortems, sometimes long after the rest of the body has been disposed of.

At present, the law forbids the cremation of separate body parts if the rest of the body has been buried.

Home Office Minister Paul Boateng said the move would help grieving families.

"It is unacceptable for families to be denied the option of cremation and we have amended the gap in the law that prevented this.

"Families are better able to cope with their grief when they are able to choose what they consider to be fitting funeral arrangements and we need to make this as easy as possible."

Two separate investigations were launched last year when it emerged that hundreds of dead children's hearts and other organs had been retained by hospitals, often without the parents' knowledge.

Some of the children involved had been operated on at Bristol Royal Infirmary, already at the centre of an investigation into abnormally high mortality rates.

Alder Hey Children's Hospital on Merseyside was also involved in the scandal.

Last month the hospital apologised for taking hearts, brains and other body parts from more than 800 children's bodies without seeking permission from their parents.

However it admits that it is still taking microscopic tissue samples from dead children's bodies without parental consent.

The hospital says it is a technical procedure which is usually carried out at all post-mortem examinations.

But bereaved parents say their permission should still be sought.