Demands for oversight grow after inquiry calls sector an ‘unregulated free for all’ and families seek stronger safeguards
Ministers are expected to back calls to regulate England’s funeral industry for the first time, after a series of scandals over the handling of remains.
Bereaved families have called for a new investigatory body and rules governing professional qualifications after an official inquiry declared the sector an “unregulated free for all”.
In Scotland, the industry is overseen by legislation and a mandatory code of practice introduced in March. In England, however, anyone can set up a funeral business without a licence, experience, qualifications or training.
Ministers are drawing up plans for tighter curbs after an official inquiry into the double killer David Fuller, who was found to have abused more than 100 bodies in an NHS mortuary over a 12-year period.
