It sometimes seems that replicas of Little Britain’s Carol Beer are cheerfully ensconced in
cemetery and crematoria offices, bereavement and register offices and unfortunately
even funeral directors’ branches around the
UK – anything out of the ordinary (such as a
family wanting to take care of their dead themselves...) can be met with surprise, disapproval
or a downright ‘that’s not allowed’ – effectively,
“Computer says no.”
Let’s go through a few things that families
who have contacted us have been told,
and which are COMPLETELY UNTRUE!
The Registrar who informed a family that they
must use a funeral director to carry out the funeral.
Recently, the Coroner who frightened an estranged family so badly by insisting that they
would be pursued by the local council wanting
to recoup the cost of an environmental health
funeral, that the family ended up paying for and
arranging a funeral for someone they had not
seen for decades. They thought that they would
land up in court.
The District Council that refused to allow a
family to carry out a DIY burial – (apparently
their policy was to prohibit anyone other than ‘a
Registered Funeral Director who is part of their
own Stonemakers and Funeral Directors Registration Scheme’ to undertake a burial in any of
their cemeteries).
The nursing staff member who told another
family that their relative would have to be cremated and not buried because they had died
from an infectious disease.
The cemetery and crematorium manager who
has informed families that they have to take out
their own public liability insurance if they intend to carry out a funeral without using a funeral director, whether a cremation or burial.
This ‘ruling’ has also been applied to families
wishing to carry the coffin themselves.
The GP who atten