MP Simon Hoare is calling time on the surprising loophole behind the funeral trade – anyone can set up shop, no licence or training required
Let me start with some exciting news. The esteemed editor of this august publication, Laura Hitchcock, and I are going into business together – we’re setting up a new commercial venture.
In the absence of any other idea, we have decided to become funeral directors. We will offer the full service, aas well as administering a prepaid funeral plan for those who wish to pay for their funerals in instalments and in advance.
Now, I think I hear one or two of you saying, ‘Interesting, but what experience have you got in this area?’ (They’re not alone – Ed)
The answer, dear reader, is none.
And guess what?
We don’t need any.
All we need are the formalities of setting up a limited company and some advertising. In a society and economy where business – and most areas of our daily lives – are regulated, inspected or licensed, the undertaking business has no such burdens or obligations. We have rules governing pubs, burger bars, tattoo parlours, cafés … but absolutely nothing about how we deal with our dead.
The only legislation covering the deceased is the Burials Act 1857, which mostly deals with the exhumation of a body. Common law has expectations about a decent burial, but that’s about it. There is a greater requirement on a farmer moving livestock than there is on an undertaker moving a body.
An expectation
I knew none of the above until I was a Minister, when a very bad case of undertaker-failure occurred in Hull. Alongside the Ministry of Justice, we looked into the situation and were appalled to find that there is simply no statutory, licensing or qualification requirement to set up as an undertaker.
However, before panic sets in, the vast majority of funeral directors know what they are doing – and do it well. There are several standard-setting voluntary trade bodies that around 80 per cent of operators belong to. They do inspect and help to set operating standards. But that still means around 20 per cent are not members of any such body.
Even if they are, and are found to fall below expected standards and are expelled from their trade association, they can still continue to trade.
The sector has grown up under a societal expectation that our dead will be treated with dignity and respect in the period between death and funeral.
But it is just that – an expectation. An assumption. There is nothing to back it up or enforce it.
They want red tape
Ministerial colleagues and I were working up detailed plans to rectify this when the 2024 election was called: new Government – same old issue.
It was after receiving a rather underwhelming ‘in the fullness of time’ response to a Written Parliamentary Question that I secured an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons to get the issue in public and on the record.
Usually, when one seeks to introduce a new tier of paperwork and regulation, there is kickback from operators and their representative bodies. Not so in this case. The trade bodies want licensing, inspection and statutory regulation – I was at pains to stress this to the Government. The operators of excellent businesses do not want the limited but existing rotten apples to poison the barrel and erode public trust.
I was buoyed by the fact that there was strong interest from other MPs in the Commons and a united and clear message to Government that doing nothing is not an option.
The Minister clearly got this. The issue is that it affects several Government departments – the Department of Health & Social Care if it is to be the Human Tissue Authority that has an inspection role; the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities if local councils are to have a role in licensing (this is my preferred option); the Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority regarding the selling of pre-paid plans; the Department for Business in terms of commercial issues; and the Ministry of Justice, which covers the Burial Act and registration of deaths …
My first task will be to establish which department is taking the lead and co-ordinating across Government. The second will be, alongside other colleagues, pressing for legislation that will drive out the cowboys, protect the good operators and ensure public confidence in this sensitive but vital area.
