To address the price and service transparency concerns identified during the 2019 to 2020 investigation into the funeral sector, the CMA made a legally binding Order, the Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021.

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.

The CMA expects all businesses that are subject to a CMA Order to be compliant with it at all times.

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

Displaying prices and other information

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

• the Standardised Price List
• Additional Options Price List
• local crematorium operators’ prices
• certain terms of business (for example on deposits and late payment of fees)
• certain details relating to interests with other parties (including information about donations) - 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. It includes:

• attended funerals
• unattended funerals
• certain additional products and services

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

The attended funeral is a funeral which includes a service that mourners can attend.

The Order specifies a combination of products and services which are generally considered to be sufficient to deliver an attended funeral and which you must cover in the Standardised Price List in Part C of Schedule 1. If a customer does not wish to purchase one or more of the elements included in the attended funeral, you may remove these elements and apply an appropriate discount.

The unattended funeral is a funeral which does not include a service and where mourners may not attend. The Order specifies a combination of products and services, comprising the elements set out in Part D of Schedule 1 to the Order, which are generally considered to be sufficient to deliver an unattended funeral.

You must complete the Standardised Price List in full using our template.

No changes to the format of the Standardised Price List are permitted, except those allowed in Part B of Schedule 1 to this Order.

When completing this template, you must:

• complete both the total price of the attended funeral, and separate prices for each of the individual items, while ensuring the prices for individual items listed reflect the total price displayed for the attended funeral
• display the price of all items as monetary values that are greater than £0, unless otherwise specified in Part A of Schedule 1 of the Order
• enter ‘Not offered’ for the total price for the attended funeral, if you only offer unattended funerals
• enter ‘Not offered’ for the unattended funeral, if you only offer attended funerals
• ensure the price of any additional products or services listed on the Standardised Price List is included, or marked appropriately as specified in Part A of Schedule 1 of the Order

You can use your own branding, colour or font when displaying your Standardised Price List to customers.

More details of the requirements relating to the Standardised Price List can be found in paragraphs 22 to 31 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:

• includes services which may have traditionally been treated as disbursements, such as flower arrangement, coffin, transportation and funeral jewellery options
• does not include any products and services provided on request by a customer which you don’t typically offer on your website or in branches (for example, bespoke items)

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

You must disclose the prices of any bespoke services before the customer agrees to buy them.

Price information for services in the Additional Options Price List can be displayed as a fixed monetary value, a starting from price or as a range.

For more information, visit paragraphs 32 to 33 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Local crematorium operators’ prices

You can use your own branding, colour or font when displaying your Standardised Price List to customers.

You must display the prices of the following services, which local 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

A cremation which does not include a service and where mourners are not present, sometimes referred to as a direct cremation.

For more information, visit paragraph 34 of the Explanatory Note to the Order.

Terms of business

The following terms of business must be displayed, if you require your customers to pay a deposit or charges for payment of late fees. They must also be provided 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

Funeral directors must disclose:

1 . the Ultimate Owner of the business. This will differ depending on the nature of your business (details of how to complete this disclosure are provided at paragraph 79 of the Explanatory Note to the Order). For instance, this may be:

• the trading name of your business if you are a sole trader
• the registered company under which the business operates if the owners are individuals
• the parent company of the business if you operate under a corporate structure

Where you operate under a corporate structure ensure you disclose both the parent company and the registered company under which the business operates.

2 . 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:

• funeral director services
• crematoria services
• prices of these services

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

• come to a total of £250 or more; and
• 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 concerned, the amounts and when the donation, contribution or other form of payment was 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

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

• within all your branches
• online, for instance on your website (and the website of each of your branches), and/or any other online platform on which you advertise your services (for example, if you don’t have a website but otherwise market your business online)

The information listed above needs to be provided in a clear and prominent manner. This means that it must be:

• legible and written in plain English
• easy to find
• prominent 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.

Displaying information in branch

In the window of each branch, funeral directors must display the Standardised Price List.

This window display is expected to be at least an A4 size poster or a similarly prominent digital display.

Inside each branch, funeral directors must display:

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

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

Some of the information must be displayed on a poster of at least A2 size, or A3 size where there is not enough space. This includes:

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

The Standardised Price List must be displayed separately (for example on a separate poster) from all the other information you are required to display for your customers. All the other information above may be displayed together. For example, you may display this information on digital screens as long as the Standardised Price List is displayed separately (i.e. not on rotation with the other information).

Physical or electronic copies of the Standardised Price List, the price information from local crematorium operators, and your terms of business must be given to customers when requested. You must also offer to send a physical copy of these to a customer when they are unable to visit a branch in person and do not have access to your website/online platform.

Displaying information online

On your website(s), you must display all the information you display in branch in appropriately named PDF documents. The Standardised Price List must be displayed in a PDF separate to all other information, accessible in one link from the home page.

If you do not have a website, but do market your business online, you must display this information where you market your services (online channels or social media platforms, for example).

Prohibited 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

The Order bans certain practices by funeral directors described below. You can find more details in the Explanatory Note to the Order, paragraphs 102 to 107.

Arrangements with institutions

Funeral directors must not make arrangements which encourage certain types of institution to refer a customer to them or give preference to them over other funeral directors. This also applies to arrangements that could reasonably be understood to encourage, incentivise or require such preferential treatment.

This ban applies to arrangements with:

• hospitals
• hospices
• care homes
• providers of bereavement services in a hospital setting
• providers of palliative care
• other 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, a funeral director 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 customers to that funeral director.

Similarly, a funeral director must not make agreements to exclusively or prominently advertise their services on a hospital’s written materials (for example, pamphlets, leaflets, or online) as this may undermine a customer’s willingness to shop around or make choices appropriate for their needs.

More examples of prohibited 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.

What to do if you are not compliant

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

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. The CMA has issued separate guidance about the process used for enforcement activity. This can be found at: Merger and market remedies: Guidance on reporting, investigation and enforcement of potential breaches.