MPs press for faster action over funeral sector

Warning: This article contains distressing content

A cross-party group of MPs has called for urgent government action to regulate the funeral industry following the conviction of former Hull funeral director Robert Bush.

In a letter to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, the 50 MPs said "a regulatory black hole" in the sector had made his crimes possible and they warned that without intervention, further cases of "severe negligence and abuse" were inevitable.

Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors, was jailed for 20 years in July for 67 offences, including denying 30 people a decent and proper burial.

The government restated that it would bring forward plans "to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased", including proper regulation.

In England and Wales, the funeral sector currently remains unregulated with no minimum standard of care for the deceased or bereaved families.

In the letter, organised by Gosport MP Dame Caroline Dinenage and Leeds South West and Morley MP Mark Sewards, the signatories said they were writing "as a cross-party group of Members of Parliament to express our collective outrage at the atrocities exposed" during Bush's trial.

During Bush's trial, Hull Crown Court heard how bodies had been left to decompose, unidentified ashes were left in mouldy boxes, and excrement and bodily fluids were found on the floor.

The MPs said his actions were not isolated and they highlighted other cases, including funeral directors Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell from Gosport, Hampshire, who were jailed after 46 bodies were left in unrefrigerated conditions at their premises.

The letter also referred to funeral director Amie Upton, who was banned from NHS maternity wards and mortuaries in Leeds after keeping babies' bodies at her home.

Although the MPs said the government's recent commitment to develop legislative proposals was welcome, it was not sufficient, and they called for three immediate steps to be taken.

They said the government should publish an immediate, comprehensive response to the Fuller Inquiry recommendations and commit to implementing them in full.

That inquiry was launched after hospital electrician David Fuller, a double murderer, was found to have abused the bodies of more than 100 women and girls in NHS mortuaries in Kent.

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

The MPs also said ministers should back amendments to the upcoming Health Bill "to establish a clear, statutory regulatory framework for funeral directors".

Third, they added that funding must be provided to "enable the Human Tissue Authority, or other relevant public authority, to inspect, license and regulate the funeral industry".

Following Bush's sentencing, Cooper described his actions as "utterly abhorrent", adding that her "thoughts are with all the bereaved families in Hull who have been so badly let down".

She said the government would put forward comprehensive proposals to ensure respect and dignity for the deceased in every setting, including proper regulation of the funeral sector.

"We are determined to drive rogue operators out of this industry, and protect other families from suffering this same heartache," she said.

"Every person in every situation deserves dignity in death, and every bereaved family deserves certainty that their loved ones are being treated with care and respect."

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