Gosport MP, Dame Caroline Dinenage, to hold an urgent Parliamentary debate on regulating the sector.

The funeral sector currently lacks regulation of any kind. There are no minimum standards to set up a funeral parlour, and no minimum qualifications for the practitioners that work there.

Following the case of David Fuller, a serial necrophiliac, the Government ordered an inquiry into access to public mortuaries. However, the issue of low standards extends deep into the end-of-life industry. Even those who handle dead bodies, such as funeral directors and embalmers, who carry out surgical procedures, are not subject to any mandatory training or suitability checks and no inspection.

Public awareness of how this opaque sector operates is low, which has allowed malpractice to spread. The lack of transparency in direct cremation services, which are growing in popularity, creates even more potential for funeral professionals to deny dignity in death. High profile cases in Gosport, Hull, and Leeds have underlined the urgent need for a whole suite of regulation in the funeral sector.

Following the sentencing of Gosport funeral directors, Elkin and Bell, last month, Dame Caroline has secured a debate in the House of Commons on Monday 9 March on “reforming the regulation of funeral directors”. She is expected to call for a full licensing regime of funeral directors, regular inspections, and minimum qualifications, as well as a clear plan from Government for how to deliver this.

Families whose deceased relatives were left for weeks in unrefrigerated conditions at Gosport’s Elkin and Bell Funeral Directors have also called for action to regulate the industry.

In December, Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell were found to have kept 46 bodies in unrefrigerated conditions across an 18-month period on their premises on Nobes Avenue, Gosport. Bailiffs entering the property in December 2023 had found the body of an elderly gentleman in a badly decomposed condition after it had been left for 36 days, which prompted an investigation.

Concerns about the funeral directors had already been raised in June 2023, when Portsmouth’s Senior Coroner filed a complaint to Gosport Borough Council. This was due to the Coroner receiving a body from Elkin and Bell which was “laying in pools of bodily fluids” and covered in maggots. Despite this, an inspection by Gosport Borough Council’s Environmental Health team in July found nothing untoward at the site.

Due to the complete absence of regulation specific to the funeral sector, the Crown Prosecution Service had to use a range of laws to successfully convict Elkin and Bell, including the Victorian era common law crime of preventing lawful burial. The pair were jailed for four years in February.

Corrinne Boulton’s deceased son, who was in the care of Elkin and Bell in July 2023, had the dates of his time there falsified. She said: “When our baby was born and died, we entrusted him to Elkin and Bell to care for him on our behalf. Unbeknownst to us the funeral industry isn’t regulated and unspeakable horrors can and do happen to our loved ones.

“This has to change – everyone in the industry needs to be held to the high standards of dignity for the deceased that we expect.”

Another victim of Elkin and Bell, Jamie Williams, whose deceased mother was one of those left in unspeakable conditions, said: “My mum was the victim of an unregulated and outdated system that does not protect our loved ones when they are at their most vulnerable.

“It’s unthinkable that anyone could be a Funeral Director, even without something as simple as a DBS check.

“I don’t want anyone to go through what my family has, the feeling of letting your mum down. Regulation cannot come soon enough, as well as sentencing guidelines to ensure that the sentence fits the awful crimes committed.”

Local MP Caroline Dinenage has been working with families to change the law, beginning with meetings with local families, and Conservative Ministers Mike Freer in December 2023, and Simon Hoare in March 2024. She met with Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones on 16 February 2026.

Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, said: “This is the most shocking case I have had to deal with as an MP.

“Regulation is imperative if we are going to restore trust in this industry. I was speechless when I first found out that anyone can set up a funeral directors. You could do it in your front room if you wanted and it would be perfectly legal. That situation has to change.

“Since Elkin and Bell have been sentenced I can speak publicly and loudly about this issue. I’m calling for a range of measures to make sure this never happens again and, if it does, that justice is delivered swiftly and proportionately.”