Guidance

Funeral directors with 4 or fewer branches

Published 27 January 2023

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made a legally binding Order, known as the Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 (or the Order). This places legal obligations on all funeral directors to:

• Disclose certain price information and business, financial and commercial information to all customers.

The Order also bans all funeral directors from:

• Entering or conducting arrangements with a hospital, hospice, care home, or other similar institution, which could reasonably be understood to incentivise the institution to refer customers to you (the funeral director) or give preference to your business over other funeral directors; and
• Soliciting business through coroner and police contracts.

As a funeral director with less than 5 branches, you do not have to submit financial information or compliance statements to the CMA unless specifically requested. However, you must still comply with the other requirements in the Order.

This guide aims to help funeral directors understand their requirements so that they can comply with the Order.

We encourage you to read the Order and Explanatory note in full so you can understand your requirements further.

Displaying prices and other information

Funeral directors must display the following information and ensure it is kept up to date:

• The Standardised Price List
• Local crematorium operators’ prices
• Additional Options Price List
• Terms of business
• Disclosure of interests

This is so your customers can see the prices you charge, which will help them be aware of the total costs of the services they may need and compare your prices to those of other funeral directors.

It also highlights information that customers may wish to consider when choosing their funeral director.

The Standardised Price List

This is an itemised price list of frequently purchased products and services, in a fixed format.

The Standardised Price List is intended to help bereaved customers compare providers so they can choose the best funeral for their needs and budget.

In order to comply with the Order, you must complete the Standardised Price List template which we have provided for you . When using the template, you must:

• complete the total price of the Attended Funeral, and separate prices for each of the individual items
• ensure the price of all items is greater than £0, and these prices add up to the total price displayed for the Attended Funeral
• ensure the price of any additional products or services listed on the Standardised Price List is included

You can use your own branding, colour or font when displaying this list to your customers.

If you only offer Unattended Funerals, you must enter ‘Not offered’ for the total price of the Attended Funeral. You must do this by entering a dash (–) instead of a price for each element of the Attended Funeral.

More details on the Standardised Price List requirements can be found in paragraphs 22 to 31 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Attended Funeral

This is a funeral which includes a service where mourners can attend. The Order specifies a combination of products and services which you must cover.

If you provide Attended Funerals, the Standardised Price List you display must include these products and services and their prices.

Unattended Funeral

This is a funeral which and does not include a service and where mourners may not attend. The Order specifies a combination of products and services which this must cover.

If you provide Unattended Funerals, the Standardised Price List you display must include these products and services

When providing the Attended Funeral and/or Unattended Funeral, all funeral directors must follow the minimum standards in Schedule A of the Explanatory Note.

Local crematorium operators’ prices

You must display the prices of the following services, which crematorium operators must provide to you, and ensure they are up to date:

A Crematorium Standard Fee Attended Service

This is a cremation which includes a service with mourners present at the crematorium, held in peak hours (typically considered to be weekdays from 10am to 4pm and weekends).

A Crematorium Reduced Fee Attended Service

This is a cremation which includes a service with mourners present at the crematorium, held in off-peak hours (typically considered to be on a weekday before 10am or after 4pm) and for which a reduced fee is charged.

Crematorium Unattended Service

This is a cremation, also known as a direct cremation, which does not include a service and where mourners are not present.

[Call to action box – For more information, visit paragraph 34 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.]

Additional Options Price List

This is an itemised price list of all the products and services that any specific funeral director offers to customers that are not included in the Standardised Price List in the section labelled: Additional Funeral Director Products and Services

It enables funeral directors to reflect regional, national or cultural needs or preferences of their customers.

You can also provide bespoke products or services that are not listed on the Additional Options Price List, if a customer requests them. However, you must disclose the prices of these products or services before the customer agrees to buy them.

Visit paragraphs 32 to 33 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Terms of business

You must display the following terms of business and provide them to customers when requested:

• amount of any deposits
• when any deposit, and the final balance, must be paid
• payment options available to customers, including whether interest is payable
• any late payment charges

For more information, visit paragraphs 60 to 62 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Disclosure of interests

You must disclose:

• the ultimate owner of the business, which will differ depending on the nature of your business (visit paragraph 79 of the Explanatory Note to the Order)

• any business or material financial interest (visit paragraph 80 of the Explanatory Note to the Order) you may have in a comparison website which compares:

  1. funeral director services
  2. crematoria services
  3. prices of these services

• a register providing details of any material charitable donation(s), contribution(s) (for example, monetary donations or tips) or other form of payment which:

  1. come to a total of £250 or more
  2. do not relate to a cost incurred or a service provided by a third party on behalf of or to you, the funeral director

The register must cover the previous 12 months and include the names of the third party, the amounts and when the donation, contribution or other form of payment were made. Further details of what this register should include is in paragraphs 81 to 89 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Displaying required information

You must display The Standardised Price List, Additional Options Price List, local crematorium operators’ prices, terms of business and disclosure of interests in the following locations:

• within all your branches, in the branch window
• on your website (and the website of each of your branches)

Don’t have a website? You must display this information where you market your services (such as online or social media channels).

The Standardised Price List, however, must be displayed separately (for example on a separate poster).

You can display all the other information above together.

Physical or electronic copies of:

• the Standardised Price List
• price information from local crematorium operators
• your terms of business

must be given to customers when requested. You must also offer these when customers cannot visit a branch in person.

The information listed above must be clear and prominent in manner, which means it must be:

• legible and written in plain English
• easy to find
• visible within its particular location
• actively brought to the customer’s attention

Further details concerning the requirement for information to be prominent and clear can be found in paragraphs 94 to 101 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Format and size

Funeral directors must display the Standardised Price List in the window of every branch . This display must be at least an A4 size poster, or a similarly prominent digital display.

Inside each branch, you must display:

• the Standardised Price List
• the Additional Options Price List
• the prices from crematorium operators
• the terms of business
• the disclosure of interests including the register of payments

These must be displayed in an area frequented by your customer and not, for example, behind a counter.

Some of the information must be displayed, and made available to your customers, on a poster of at least A2 size, or A3 size where there is not enough space, which includes:

• the Standardised Price List
• the prices from local crematorium operators
• the terms of business
• the disclosure of interests

If you have a website, you must display all the same information you display in a branch as a PDF document. This must be accessible in one link from your homepage. The Standardised Price List, however, must be displayed in a separate PDF to all other information.

Three graphics: one showing a computer screen with the Standardised Price List and Terms of Business; one showing the Standardised Price List in the window of a funeral director's branch; one showing the Standardised Price List and Terms of Business on display inside a Funeral Director's branch.

Banned practices

The Order bans funeral directors from engaging in certain practices so that:

• funeral directors do not exploit their position of trust
• customers can shop around to choose an appropriate funeral director based on their needs

Arrangements with institutions

Funeral directors must not make arrangements which encourage, or could reasonably be understood to encourage, incentivise or require the institution to refer a customer to them or give the funeral director preference over other funeral directors.

This ban applies to arrangements with:

• hospitals
• hospices
• care homes
• providers of bereavement services in a hospital setting
• providers of palliative care,
• or similar institutions

Such arrangements, include any payments, benefits or gifts that are informally agreed upon or in a written contract.

For example, giving physical gifts to institutions, such as Christmas packages with no incentives, agreements or payments implied, are fine as long as they do not influence people’s choices to use a funeral director’s services over others.

For example, all funeral directors must not make a payment or gift to a care home which could reasonably be understood to incentivise or require the care home to refer to customers to that funeral director.

Similarly, a funeral director must not make agreements to advertise their services on a hospital’s written materials (for example, pamphlets, leaflets, or online) if this restricts a customer’s choice.

More examples of banned practices can be found in the Explanatory Note to the Order paragraphs 102 to 107.

Police and coroner contracts

Coroners have the power to have a body brought into the public mortuary and keep it there while they carry out investigations. In this context, funeral directors may have contracts or arrangements to provide services to the coroner or police.

Funeral directors must not promote their services to potential customers when collecting the body of the deceased.

Exemptions

Funeral directors can have the following relationships with institutions:

• commercial arrangements between a funeral director and the institution to collect, transport and store the deceased to appropriate facilities
• arrangements with other third sector organisations that provide bereavement counselling services outside of a hospital setting

Funeral directors can also provide training to third-party staff.

Breaches of the Order and next steps

It’s important that you follow the requirements set out by the Order.

If you find yourself in breach of the Order, you must report the breach to the CMA within 14 days of becoming aware of it. Email: RemediesMonitoringTeam@cma.gov.uk to report any breach.

This is so the CMA can work with you to end the breach quickly and effectively and/or take enforcement action if necessary.

The CMA may seek further information about any breaches as part of an investigation into that breach. The CMA also will consider whether to carry out specific enforcement action against breaches on a case-by-case basis.

Read more on the CMA’s guidance on reporting, investigation and enforcement of potential breaches.