Burial authorities, cremation authorities, and funeral directors - statutory inspection regime: consultation analysis

3. Previous 2017 Consultation on Inspection

The Scottish Government previously ran a consultation on statutory inspection of burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors between 6 July 2017 and 1 September 2017 and received 44 responses. The 2017 consultation asked eight questions on the following topics:

• Frequency of inspections
• Ad-hoc inspection, enquiry or investigation
• Search and examination of items on a premises and seizure of items
• Interviews
• Compliance and enforcement
• Revocation of licences
• Reviews and appeals

The original responses to the 2017 consultation remain available on the Scottish Government website. A separate consultation analysis will not be published for the 2017 consultation as it has now been overtaken by the 2023 consultation and reflects earlier, less detailed policy proposals for the proposed inspection regime. However, responses to the 2017 consultation helped to inform the Scottish Government’s proposals in the 2023 consultation.

Overall, there was majority support for all proposals set out by the Scottish Government in the 2017 consultation. Useful comments, critiques, and suggestions were also received in response to individual questions.

Since that time, extensive engagement with the funeral sector, including to develop the Funeral Director Code of Practice, have also helped to inform the proposals which were contained in the current 2023 consultation. Where a topic was discussed in the 2017 consultation and included again in the 2023 consultation (with greater detail), this was noted in the 2023 consultation paper.