Whilst the Government does not have operational responsibility for the provision of funeral services, we are aware of funeral delays in some areas and acknowledge that these are often exacerbated by pressures from within the wider death management system.

Government departments are taking a collaborative approach to reforming the death registration system as part of the roll out of the statutory medical examiner scheme which will come into force in April 2024. The doctor who attended the deceased during their last illness has a legal responsibility to complete a Medical Certificate Cause of Death (MCCD) as soon as possible to enable the registration of the death to take place. Guidance for doctors on completing an MCCD, available on Gov.uk, emphasises this point. As part of the work on the statutory medical examiner scheme, the Department of Health and Social Care is looking at expanding the pool of doctors who can sign the MCCD forms. When the demand on civil registration services is high, death registration appointments will always take priority over other registration appointments.

The Government continues to look at wider improvements to the death management system’s capacity and resilience, including mortuary capacity. The shortage of pathologists is a long-standing and cross-cutting issue. The Government is determined to make progress as soon as practicable. To that end, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State is engaging with Ministerial colleagues to implement effective solutions through a cross-government action plan.

The Competition and Markets Authority continues to monitor the funerals market following its recent investigation, publishing annual reviews on developments in the market. The first review, published in January 2023, set out evidence that since the introduction of transparency rules (part of the Competition and Markets Authority’s Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021)  funeral prices are flat after many years of real-terms rises. This means that costs paid by UK consumers for funeral services are likely to be lower as a result of the Competition and Markets Authority’s intervention.

The Competition and Markets Authority will continue its work to ensure that all consumers are able to benefit from the measures introduced in the Order and it has the information required to monitor consumer outcomes.

Additionally, the Government helps with the cost of funeral services for many bereaved families through the Funeral Expenses Payment scheme and the Children’s Funeral Fund.

The Government does not have operational responsibility for the provision of funeral services and as such does not collate information on waiting times for funerals.

However, we are aware of some areas experiencing longer waiting times for funeral services and we are working with other government departments and the sector to address capacity and resilience issues within the death management system.