Funeral directors could work at home and keep bodies of dead people in their garages, an inquiry chairman warned, as he called for a regulator to police the sector.
Sir Jonathan Michael, who is investigating how people who have died are looked after around the country in the wake of necrophiliac killer David Fuller’s mortuary abuse, found funeral directors do not need a licence, qualifications or training, and described the sector is an “unregulated free-for-all”.
He said many people are “shocked” to find that the industry goes unchecked and anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director.
Publishing his latest findings on Tuesday, he urged the Government to bring in a regulator for funeral directors in England as a “matter of urgency”.
“There are no organisations in England with the power to prevent funeral directors operating on the basis of poor practice or neglect not deemed to be criminal.
“We need a regime that will not tolerate any form of abuse or any practices that compromise the security and dignity of the deceased,” he said.
Although overall he found the funeral sector to be a “caring” profession and said in general people who had died were being treated with “kindness, dignity and respect”, he warned there were “exceptions” and his conclusions could indicate “systemic failure” to protect people who died through a lack of standard policies.
The report highlighted alleged incidents including a funeral assistant taking photos of a person being embalmed, of people being left to decompose or covered in mouldy sheets, and the sexual assault of a dead woman by a funeral director in the 1990s.
“The fact is that anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. They could do it from their home and keep the bodies of the deceased in their garage without anybody being able to stop them,” Sir Jonathan said.
“That cannot be right.”
Sir Jonathan is reviewing how people who have died are cared for around the country and scrutinising funeral directors, private mortuaries and ambulances as part of a probe into Fuller’s crimes.
The Government launched the public inquiry after the maintenance worker sexually abused the bodies of more than a hundred women and girls aged between nine and 100 while employed at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, between 2005 and 2020.
The first phase of the inquiry, which looked at his employer Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, found Fuller was able to offend for 15 years without being caught due to “serious failings” at the hospitals he worked at.
Sir Jonathan said the latest report follows “distressing” allegations of neglect as police investigate a funeral directors in Hull.
Humberside Police said detectives had been working “around the clock” since concerns were raised at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in March “about the storage and management processes relating to care of the deceased at the funeral directors”.
The inquiry chairman said it was “right and proper” that looking into Fuller “led to questions about the security and dignity of the deceased in other settings”.
Setting out how the regulator should have the power to issue licences, demand compulsory standards, inspect funeral directors and take enforcement action, Sir Jonathan said he hopes publishing the report will help ministers and funeral homes to “take steps that assure the public that the sector is fit for purpose and will not tolerate any form of abuse or practice which compromises the security and dignity of the deceased, including that caused by neglect”.
It should be mandatory for customers to be given information about how funeral directors will care for their loved ones and what measures are in place to protect them so the industry is more transparent in how it operates, the report added.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Government was “committed to preventing any similar atrocities happening again and ensuring that the deceased are safeguarded and treated with dignity”.
