No, it’s not happening yet.
Our most recent communication from the Burial, Cremation and Exhumation Policy and Casework Team at the Ministry of Justice in May this year stated: “Government has been reviewing the issues and recommendations outlined in the Fuller Inquiry’s Phase 2 report and is considering the full range of options to ensure standards are maintained.”
And the cross-governmental work ‘to raise standards in relation to the care and treatment of the deceased’ is now being led by the Department of Health and Social Care, which, in turn, is now being led by the tenth Secretary of State since 2018.
The TENTH! In eight years!
So we don’t have much faith that regulation of the funeral sector will happen any time soon.
In the meantime, on the date that the sentencing hearing begins for Robert Bush, the man who so terribly betrayed bereaved families in Hull, we are publishing a suite of documents that we believe would provide a robust framework for the government to adopt.
These documents were created by a Good Funeral Guide working group of some of our superb Recommended funeral directors and are written entirely in the interest of the public, not that of the funeral sector.
We have submitted and presented these documents to numerous civil servants and MPs over the last two years, and, in the absence of any official progress as yet, we feel that it is now time that they are in the public domain.
If you are a funeral director, we invite you to download and adopt the Code of Practice we have written. Based on the Funeral Director Code of Practice now operating in Scotland, we believe this is the most accessible and easy to understand Code of Practice that puts the experience of bereaved families as well as the care of people who have died at its heart.
We also invite you to commit to the Funeral Director Pledge, and publicise this to your community.
For families considering caring for someone who has died themselves, we have produced a Guidance document, which will help you do this in the best way possible.
Finally, we have suggested a licensing scheme for those working in the funeral sector.
Together, these documents offer comprehensive and informed guidance that could underpin statutory regulation of the funeral sector, and would offer the general public the reassurance and confidence that should be guaranteed.
We would like to thank all of the members of our working group for their expert input and involvement in creating these documents – in alphabetical order, these were Allistair Anderson, Carrie Weekes, David Holmes, James Blackburn, Jo Williamson, Kelly Owen, Louise Winter, Lucy Coulbert, Michael Tiney and Jenny Uzzell.
You won’t find a better group of people who know what best practice in funerals looks like.
Hopefully, at some point, someone in government will realise this.
For the full suite of downloadable documents, visit our Downloads page.
