CMA (Competitions & Markets Authority)
Funerals Markets Report
18 December 2020
We have read with great interest today the summary report issued by the CMA which has looked in detail at operations and practices across the funeral services sector.
Whilst we haven’t yet digested the full report and formulated a full response to its findings and recommendations, we are pleased to see an outcome to the CMA investigation, ending a considerable period of uncertainty across the funeral profession.
We are particularly pleased to see that Neville Funerals already complies with the recommendations of the CMA and has been doing so for some considerable time, as have many of our independent colleagues in the industry.
We don’t give, and never have given, incentives to anyone to influence or affect our funeral numbers and believe that our costs are clearly illustrated on our website. All of our clients are provided with a detailed estimate of costs prior to the funeral.
We welcome the proposal for funeral directors to be formally registered, with the quality of key aspects of their activities subject to review by independent inspectors, which we believe will help raise standards across the industry.
We employ our own fully qualified and very experienced member of staff as an NAFD tutor and the majority of our senior staff and funeral directors are NAFD qualified. We organise and schedule, when Covid guidelines allow, an annual programme of training and development across all staff categories.
Neville Funerals will issue a detailed review of the CMA report in the New Year.
The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law.