Funeral regulation decision 'due by summer'

Warning: This article contains distressing content

A decision on regulating England's funeral industry for the first time will be made later this year after a series of scandals over the handling of human remains.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Leeds South West and Morley MP Mark Sewards raised the issue following the experiences of two families whose babies' bodies were kept at a funeral director's house in the city.

He said: "There have been too many cases in recent memory of people not being cared for with the dignity that they deserved."

Minister Alison McGovern said the government would decide by the summer whether statutory regulation of the industry should be introduced.

A statutory code of conduct for funeral directors was introduced in Scotland last March, but the industry is currently unregulated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Sewards has been campaigning for the law change following the experiences of Zoe Ward and Cody and Liam Townend.

Ward previously described how she had been left "screaming" after finding her dead son had been put in a baby bouncer in the living room of funeral director Aime Upton, the founder of Florrie's Army.

A BBC Investigation in August reported that Upton had been banned from entering any NHS mortuaries and maternity wards in Leeds after keeping babies' bodies at her home.

Upton previously told the BBC she had only ever received two complaints in her eight years of running her funeral and baby loss support service in Leeds.

Meanwhile, West Yorkshire Police said it had investigated Florrie's Army, but after "extensive inquiries" had not identified any potential crimes.

Also speaking in the Commons on the issue, Steve Yemm, Labour MP for Mansfield, highlighted the unconnected experiences of a family in his constituency.

He said: "They said that their deceased father, who had been left in the care of a local funeral home, had been stored in such a way that his body had decomposed to the extent that it was covered in maggots by the time it was sent to the coroner."

The MP said the case showed the need for "further regulation and a more rigorous inspection regime" for those who work in the industry.

McGovern, minister for local government and homelessness, said the government would respond to recommendations given by an inquiry last July, which called for statutory regulations to be introduced.

Known as the Fuller Inquiry, it was launched after hospital electrician David Fuller was found to have abused the bodies of more than 100 deceased women and girls in NHS mortuaries in Kent.

It concluded that current arrangements in England's funeral sector were "partial and ineffective" and recommended the creation of an independent regulator.

McGovern said the government would "think through the options very carefully" but it needed to "strike the right balance" between public assurance and "getting it right for the more than 6,500 funeral providers, many of which are small family firms".

She added: "This is a sensitive and meaningful area of public life; when things go wrong, the harm is profound and long-lasting."

• If you, or someone you know, have been affected by child bereavement, support is available via the BBC Action Line

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.