Funeral Industry News

  • Public Consultation Events: Regulations for the Funeral Sector

    3rd October 2023 by

    The Scottish Government is running two online consultation engagement events to discuss the collection of consultations on funeral sector regulation. The events are open to members of the public and of the funeral sector. The events will take place on 24 October 2023 (12:00 – 13:00) and 2 November 2023 (18:30 – 19:30) and will...

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  • Public consultations launched: views sought on new regulations for the funeral sector in Scotland

    25th August 2023 by

    The Scottish Government has today launched a collection of public consultations on different aspects of regulation of the funeral sector in Scotland. The proposed regulations in the consultations are to be made under the Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016. The collection of four consultations cover regulations on the following topics: Alkaline hydrolysis (‘water cremation’)...

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  • Body Donation In Scotland: Understanding What Happens After A Person Dies

    19th July 2023 by

    Body donor programmes make an important contribution to medical education activities across Scotland. This NHS Education for Scotland video provides guidance for health and social care staff in Scotland on what to do after the death of someone who wished to donate their body to medical science. It’s of particular relevance to doctors, but may...

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  • Repatriation: Possible Fatal Accident Inquiry

    13th June 2023 by

    Where someone who is ordinarily resident in Scotland dies abroad and their body is to be repatriated to Scotland the death must be registered first in the country where it occurred.  The Death Certification Review Service (DCRS) deals with applications for repatriation. DCRS will review the paperwork from the country where the death occurred, the...

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  • Funeral Directors: Refrigeration Survey

    12th April 2023 by

    The Scottish Government is seeking to understand how many funeral directors in Scotland have, or have access to, refrigeration or cold room storage for the storage of the deceased. This information will help inform the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) that is required for the Scottish Government to implement the Funeral Director: Code of...

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  • Repatriation – Quick Guide Form for Funeral Directors

    26th January 2023 by

    The Death Certification Review Service (DCRS) has produced a helpful repatriation quick guide form for funeral directors. This displays the sections of the statutory forms which are often completed incorrectly and guides the funeral director on how to complete these sections. This is a one page printable document which is hoped will be a useful...

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  • Booking Registrar Appointments to Register a Death

    1st November 2022 by

    A number of registrars have noticed an increase in some funeral directors sending copies of medical certificates of cause of death (MCCD) to more than one registrar’s office at the same time and booking a number of appointments to register the same death. Presumably this is done to give families options and find the earliest...

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  • Provisional Bookings for Burial or Cremation Prior to Registration of Death

    2nd August 2022 by

    A Certificate of Registration of Death (‘Form 14’) is required under section 27A of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 before a burial or cremation can take place in Scotland.   Under the 1965 Act, it is the responsibility of burial and cremation authorities to ensure the appropriate paperwork has been...

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  • Covid-19: Test and Protect update

    31st March 2022 by

    On 15 March 2022, the First Minister provided an update on Test and Protect within her statement. We published an update to Covid-19 regulations and guidance on 16 March to provide the link to the updated test and protect transitional plan and update to the funeral industry.   We have now received more details from Test...

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  • COVID-19: Update on duration of self-isolation and on critical worker exemptions to self-isolation

    6th January 2022 by

    On 21 December 2021, in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the First Minister set out new protective measures. We issued a blog on 23 December setting out how those protections and exemptions applied to the funeral industry. The First Minister made a further statement to the Scottish Parliament yesterday, 5 January 2022,...

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