It’s time to regulate the funeral industry
This story is incredibly distressing.
Two of my constituents came to my office for help earlier this year. Tragically, they had lost their baby daughter when she was stillborn at St James Hospital.
They approached a funeral director who they had been told had a good record in supporting families in similar, tragic situations.
To their horror, they found out that their daughter had not been kept at a funeral parlour, but at the private home of the funeral director for several days. When they went to recover her body, there was very strong evidence that she had not been cared for with the dignity and respect that anyone would expect in such tragic circumstances. This was not the only instance and I’ve linked the BBC story which reveals more, very distressing details below.
After they contacted the police, nothing actionable was found because there is no legally binding regulation of funeral directors and how they should complete their work. In addition to this, absolutely anyone can choose to be a funeral director and there is no obligation to sign up to the two professional bodies that set standards for this industry. To be clear, most funeral directors do sign up to these bodies and complete their work properly and respectfully in line with a code of conduct, but there is a minority who don’t sign up to these standards and there is no way to enforce them.
My constituents asked for anonymity and complete confidence until the story was published this week, to allow the BBC to conclude their investigation. I spoke with the mum who has now asked me to name her because she wants to be at the forefront of changing the law in this area. Her name is Cody Townend and I’ll be working with her as her MP to make this change.
No one should ever have to go through what they experienced ever again. The funeral industry must be regulated and this loophole closed.
There is far more to say on this and I’ve explained some of the challenges that I’ve uncovered over the last few months to those that have been in contact with since the story was published. We have two clear opportunities to change the law; when the government publishes its interim response to phase 2 of the Fuller Enquiry later this year; and again when the Law Commission completes their work on draft regulations to govern what happens to our bodies after we die. However, the solution is still not clear-cut and this is where I will press the Government to complete the urgent work required to close this loophole.
For now, I want to be clear that this work is a priority for me and I’ll be using every tool available to a backbench MP to change the law in this area. No one should ever have to go through this again.
Original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjr0ylenzo