Our Down to Earth team has submitted detailed responses to two Scottish Government consultation papers, on statutory inspection of burial and cremation authorities and funeral directors, and funeral director licensing.
Following recommendations made by the Burial and Cremation Review Group (2007), the Infant Cremation Commission (2014) and the National Cremation Investigation (2016), the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 was brought in, leading the way to statutory regulation of the funeral industry in Scotland.
QSA fully support the introduction of an inspection regime and funeral director licencing scheme, and in November our Down to Earth team submitted detailed responses to these consultation papers to help the Scottish Government ensure the right policy and legal frameworks are in place.
Inspection regime
In our response, among other things, we advocated for:
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All the premises of multi-premises funeral directors to be inspected, not just a percentage
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Publicly available inspection reports and notices of enforcement action to be easily understandable by the public
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Complaints to be accepted by phone, not just in writing, to ensure everyone is able to seek redress
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Links between different funeral directors to be taken into account when assessing risk and issuing enforcement action i.e. where one company provides services to another
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Ensuring appeals and complaints processes stick to a set timescale and are not unduly lengthy
Funeral director licencing scheme
Our submission included:
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Supporting the requirement for licences to be renewed on application every three years
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Advocating for a graded licence fee structure, according to business size, and for keeping the fee as low as possible to reduce the impact on funeral costs and on bereaved people
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Providing suggestions on how to make the public directory of licenced funeral directors as user friendly and effective as possible
All the responses will inform the draft licensing regulations, on which the Scottish Government will then also seek people’s views. We look forward to engaging with that consultation too in due course.
It is deeply encouraging to see the progress on funeral industry regulation in Scotland, and we hope it will not be too much longer before these measures are in place to protect bereaved people and those who have died.
Sadly though, it also highlights how much the UK Government and devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales are lagging behind, which are currently not making any moves towards statutory regulation. All bereaved people have the right to feel confident that their family and friends will be well cared for after they die, regardless of where they live, and we will continue to fight for the realisation of this right throughout the UK.