FUNERALS ‘MAY BE PUT ON HOLD’
Grieving families could delay service to avoid 30-person cap on mourners
HEARTBROKEN families will postpone send-offs for their loved ones for weeks unless ministers relax the rules, funeral directors have warned.
The cruel 30-person cap on mourners saying a final farewell is set to stay in place until June 21 under current restrictions.
But families may decide to delay funerals so they can give their loved one the send-off they deserve, the National Society of Allied Independent
Funeral Directors (SAIF) said. CEO Terry Tennens told the Mail: ‘The danger is that families will start postponing funerals next month and wait until June 21 or thereafter, when in theory the restrictions will be lifted.
‘When we were coming out of the first wave – towards the end of May and early June – families were holding back in the hope that they could have larger numbers attend.’
He said the lead time for a funeral is two to four weeks, depending on the region. He added: ‘Some [families] might say, “Well, actually, let’s delay it for a couple of weeks so that we can be in stage four in England”.’
He said postponing meant there was a risk that storage capacity at funeral directors could be seriously tested.
And he warned that it would have an impact on the grieving process.
‘It’s not good for families either in their grieving,’ he said. ‘It is quite important to come to that point sooner rather than later.’
His comments come amid a clamour of calls from MPs, charities and religious leaders to relax the restrictions earlier than planned.
In our campaign, The Death Of Decency, the Mail is urging ministers to reconsider the 30-person limit, introduce lateral-flow tests to reduce the need for social distancing and lift all limits on open-air services. There was anger following the final of footreasoned ball’s Carabao Cup on Sunday when 8,000 fans were allowed into Wembley.
Ministers have hinted in recent days that the Government is looking again at the restrictions.
Yesterday, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the Government ‘will always look at how we can do better’ when it comes to funerals.
Asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari whether it was time to urgently review the restrictions, Mr Zahawi said: ‘We will always look at how we can do better when it comes to making sure that people can say farewell to their loved ones.’
On Wednesday, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Funerals and Bereavement wrote to Boris Johnson demanding he take action to prioritise those who have lost loved ones.
Committee chairman Sir John Hayes said he was ‘concerned that as other sectors of the economy reopen and as larger events begin to take place again, this cap on mourners is unnecessary and unfair on those wishing to attend the funeral of a loved one’.
‘On behalf of the funeral and death care sector, I would seek a modest and approach to lifting the 30mourner limit, as has happened in Wales and Northern Ireland,’ he wrote.
The Government’s roadmap limits
mourners to 30 until June 21. The only relaxation due at the next stage – from May 17 – is lifting the cap on wakes from 15 to 30 people. On Monday,
Scotland raised the limit on mourners attending a funeral to 50, while Wales lifted the cap on outdoor wakes to 30.