The Government is committed to providing an update ‘before the end of this year’, a Minister has said
The Government’s Health Minister has updated MPs on plans to regulate funeral directors in the wake of the Legacy investigation. The Minister told the Commons this week: “This House has my assurance that we will continue to try to work at pace and cross-departmentally to bring dignity to the deceased.”
Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, who became Health Minister soon after being elected as a Labour MP at the 2024 General Election, responded to calls from MPs to bring forward legislation on what, Conservative MP Simon Hoare, described as being an “urgent and pressing issue.” Addressing the Commons on Monday (October 27), Dr Ahmed asserted: “People deserve dignity in death, and families deserve the comfort of knowing that their loved ones have been safely laid to rest.” He also told MPs: “The Government have committed to providing an interim update before the end of this year, followed by a full response in summer 2026.”
Calls for funeral directors to be regulated have gained momentum following high profile cases including that of David Fuller and the more recent, Hull-based Legacy Independent Funeral Directors. Dr Ahmed explained to MPs an independent inquiry was set up after “the unspeakable crimes of David Fuller took place in a hospital while he was a maintenance supervisor, first at Kent and Sussex hospital and later at Tunbridge Wells hospital.” The Minister added that the police “found images and videos of him committing unspeakable offences on a large number of deceased women and girls in hospital mortuary settings between 2005 and 2020.”
Mr Hoare, the Conservative MP for North Dorset, spoke of an “enormous vacuum in the rules and regulations” surrounding funeral homes. Regulations that “most fair-minded people would say needs to be filled,” he said.
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The MP added that it “cannot be right” that if the Minister, Dr Ahmed, and Mr Hoare himself wanted to, they “could set up a funeral directors.” He added “the Minister and I would not need a licence and we would not be inspected; all we would have to do is put up a sign saying ‘Funeral Directors’ with the hours of operation on it.” Mr Hoare suggested Dr Ahmed could “bring forward whatever legislation he needs” adding “it would probably pass this House in a couple of weeks.”
In Parliament, the Minister praised the three Hull MPs, Emma Hardy, Karl Turner, and Dame Diana Johnson, for their support and work. However, he could not comment directly on “specific issues in Hull, which are subject to court proceedings that have not completed.”
Legacy Independent Funeral Directors was the focus of a police investigation that began in March 2024. Earlier this month at Hull Crown Court, funeral director Robert Bush denied 31 charges, including preventing the lawful and decent burials of dead people and one offence of theft from charities.
Mr Bush did admit to 36 fraud-related offences. He will face an eight-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court from October 5, 2026.