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7.18 pm
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng): My hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) has raised an important concern, whose importance is not reflected in any way by the attendance in the Chamber. The issue goes to the welfare and concerns of the bereaved, who are at their most vulnerable when the funeral of a loved one is delayed. That can have a particularly damaging impact on their capacity to come to terms with their great and tragic loss.
As my hon. Friend said in a careful and thoughtful contribution, this is a complex matter--because of the number of Government Departments involved and because of the various stages and constituent parts that go to ensuring that a bereaved family can secure the burial or cremation of their loved one with due expedition.
I have listened keenly to my hon. Friend. We take seriously the issue of delay, and it is important to consider it in its wider perspective. Of course, as my hon. Friend will realise, many burials and cremations take place each year, and a comparatively small number of them are subject to delay. In fact, relatively few complaints are made; last year, the Home Office received one about a delay. Nevertheless, one complaint is one too many, and we accept that there are wider concerns. My hon. Friend has provided examples of such concerns, and each one of them is important and significant to the bereaved families involved. I am pleased that he has been able to raise this matter, because those families deserve assurances that the House pays careful attention to it and that the Government do all that they can to address the problems that arise.
Mr. Martlew: The fact that the Home Office has received only one complaint, when in January there were delays of more than four weeks, suggests not that the issue affects only a few people, but that people do not think that the Government have an input. Many people were affected this winter.
Mr. Boateng: My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. It is true that we must be cautious before we draw conclusions from the number of complaints that central
Government Departments receive. Members of the public may be correct in their perception that there is only a limited amount that the Government can do to deal with the problem, bearing in mind the number of agencies, organisations and authorities that have an input in determining whether there is a delay in any particular case. Nevertheless, all that can be done by Government given those limitations should be done, and we are determined to ensure that it is.I shall refer to the history of this issue, which goes back to the origins of local government's and local communities' responsibility for funerals. Funeral services have always been provided by and on behalf of the local community. Until the beginning of the 19th century, responsibility for record keeping and provision of burial grounds lay with the Church. Now, once deaths have been registered by local registrars, funerals are organised by local funeral directors, using local municipal or private cremation and burial facilities. Local arrangements can understandably be far more responsive to the community's circumstances and needs.
It is perfectly true that no national standards have been set for the timeliness of funerals. Equally, there have never been national standards for the provision of burial or cremation facilities. Municipal authorities are empowered to provide cemeteries and crematoriums if they judge that it is appropriate to do so, but private undertakings will make their own assessment of the demands and the commercial risks. We have no evidence that, in the main, the arrangements work anything other than relatively well.
Charters are clearly significant. The Government, through their service first programme, have promoted the adoption of charters by all public services. Burial, cremation and other authorities are no exception. It is a matter for the relevant authorities to decide how to proceed with the work and what standards of service they can offer. They need to have regard, among other things, to the resources available to them.
The Government have not sought to set national standards for the burial and cremation industry pending their consideration of the standards promoted in two documents which have appeared in recent years: the charter for the bereaved, which was produced by the Institute for Burial and Cremation Administration, and the dead citizens charter which was produced by the National Funerals College. Neither document sets explicit standards for timeliness, although the National Funerals College encourages extended opening times for burial and cremation facilities. The college and the institute may want further to consider with their members whether such explicit standards should be set.
Nevertheless, seven local authority bereavement services in England and Wales achieved charter mark awards for the quality of their services in recent years; it is to be hoped that more such organisations will gain that standard. It is important that local bereavement services provide the most responsive service that they can to local people. It was interesting and encouraging to hear of my hon. Friend's experience in Carlisle on that matter.
On coroners and post mortems, it is important to realise that, sometimes, delays will be occasioned by the need for medico-legal investigation before the funeral can take place. Coroners are well aware of the effect of such delays, and of the importance that the Government attach
to the timely dispatch of business. Whenever possible, coroners try to release the bodies to the relatives as soon as possible after the conclusion of any necessary post mortem examination.The model charter for the coroner service, launched last September, sets a target for the release of the body in most cases. Through that initiative, we are doing all that we can to encourage and support coroners to meet the highest standards. We are currently monitoring their progress on that matter and on the new procedures, introduced last year, to reduce delays when bodies are held pending serious criminal investigation. However, there is no room for complacency. We are not complacent about what needs to be done.
During the recent millennium period, we asked coroners about their arrangements. We suggested that they satisfy themselves that appropriate support services--from registrars, funeral directors and crematoriums and cemeteries--were in place. In the main, they achieved a relatively satisfactory standard.
However, lessons have been learned from their experience. We shall ensure that we build on that in the slightly different circumstances of the long holidays at Christmas and the new year in future. We are keen to explore ways of improving weekend and holiday provision of bereavement services. The Department of Health is currently examining the incidence of problems with a view to issuing appropriate guidance in due course.
My hon. Friend referred to the need for Government co-ordination. There is no one Minister or Department with responsibility for bereavement services in the
widest sense. Bearing in mind the wide range of services needed when a death occurs and during the weeks and months that follow, we need to ensure that, as far as is possible and appropriate, those services work in a way that is responsive to the Government's modernising initiative.That initiative is committed to promoting improvements to public services in local government and in central Government. We have been examining the services required at a number of key stages in life, and how they can be made more accessible and intelligible to the public. That is part of the work of the bereavement service action team, which works with other organisations to find ways of improving the services provided for the bereaved.
As a result of the tragic incidents surrounding the murders committed by Dr. Harold Shipman, we have set up a review of death certification. That should assist in such matters.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising these important issues. I hope that he will not hesitate to send me details of cases on which he has specific concerns, so that they can be addressed. We must ensure that, as far as possible, wherever burial and cremation services are offered they meet the reasonable demands of the bereaved, and ease, rather than aggravate, their grief. By raising the matter tonight, my hon. Friend has undoubtedly assisted in that process; the House is grateful to him.
- Adjourned accordingly at twenty-nine minutes past Seven o'clock.
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