Under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, when a resident in the area passes away outside of a hospital and there is no one else willing to pay, councils make the necessary arrangements for a public health funeral. Councils will do everything in their power to try and locate living relatives or friends of the deceased, and in some cases, pass the responsibility on to them.
If a council cannot find a friend or family member willing to deal with the deceased's estate and pay for the funeral, then councils will try their hardest to establish the faith of
the deceased and arrange a dignified service. If not, then a simple ceremony takes place followed by a burial or cremation. Under their obligation the council will deal with
all aspects of the organisation of a state-assisted funeral, including registering the death, dealing with the undertakers and organising the details of the funeral, involving
where possible, friends and relatives of the deceased in the process, and paying for the funeral. There are however certain caveats that apply to this provision. Councils will not
accept part payment for funerals, contribute to the costs of funerals organised by other persons or administer estates on behalf of others.
This research report looks in detail at public health funerals conducted by local authorities in the last year, to provide a picture of how many funerals councils are
conducting and how costly these are.
Key findings:
- The number of public health funerals held by local authorities has remained broadly consistent across the last three financial years (2007/8 to 2009/10) with,
on average, 12 funerals happening per year in English single tier authorities (that is, London boroughs, metropolitan and unitary councils) and three in districts and
Welsh authorities. There was great variation in the number of funerals conducted, particularly within English single tier authorities, with five authorities
conducting between 57 and 258 funerals. - The majority of those funerals are for men with, on average, a proportion of three male public health funerals to one female public health funeral.
- Funerals for over 65s accounted for over half of all public health funerals.
- Nearly half of respondents (46 per cent) thought the number of public health funerals conducted by their authority had stayed the same over the last three
years. Two fifths (40 per cent) thought there had been some increase, the top three reasons being "higher numbers of people dying with family and friends
unwilling to contribute to the costs of the funeral" (59 per cent of respondents);"higher numbers of people dying with family or friends unable to contribute to the
costs of a funeral" (56 per cent); and "higher numbers of people dying with no friends or family" (49 per cent). - Authorities on average reported two cases since April 2008 where family or friends have refused to make arrangements for their relatives' funeral.
- Respondents reported that, of the public health funerals they had conducted in 2009/10, the ratio was around four cremations to one burial. The majority of
respondents (87 per cent) indicated that there was no recent or planned changes to the balance of funerals that are cremations or burials. - Authorities spent in total a median average of £3,517 on public health funerals in 2009/10. Welsh unitary authorities and district authorities had the lowest
average total spend (£2,582 and £3,000 respectively). London boroughs had the highest average total spend (£13,750). The maximum spend in any one
authority was £368,682. - A calculated cost per public health funeral revealed that, on average, funerals cost £959.
- Nearly two fifths of respondents (38 per cent) reported the primary care trust (PCT) in their area had paid for some of the public health funerals they
conducted. However most (71 per cent) were unable to say whether costs were recovered. - The estimated total number of public health funerals conducted in England Wales in 2009/10 was 2,200. This is broadly similar to the two previous financial
years. - The estimated total spend on public health funerals in England and Wales in 2009/10 was £1.56m, which indicates a small increase from last year.
Public health funerals 2010 - final report
Date: August 2010
Contact: [email protected]