AFTER a regulatory investigation raised concerns over transparency, funeral directors in the UK have been given three months time to show a standardised list of prices.
The Times reported that The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said funeral businesses had until September 16 to display the information in their premises and on their websites, which would include the headline price of a funeral, the cost of individual items and the prices of additional products and services.
From Thursday (17) funeral businesses were banned from making payments for soliciting business from hospitals, care homes, and through coroner and police contracts.
The report in The Times added the crackdown comes after an investigation by the CMA last year revealed lack of transparency resulting in bereaved familes paying high prices.
The CMA in August dropped plans to introduce price controls and said it could not be introduced in a national emergency like the pandemic.
But it recommended the government to establish an independent inspection and registration regime to monitor the quality of funeral director services “as a first step in the establishment of a broader regulatory regime for funeral services”.
The CMA said that crematorium operators also would be required to provide specified price information to funeral directors and customers.
The regulator expects all funeral directors and crematorium operators to ensure that the changes are made by the deadlines and it warned that it would be “keeping a close eye on the sector and stands ready to take action if firms don’t follow the rules”.
