New fines to deter ‘no frills’ cremation firms leaving dead bodies at Bristol mortuary

New fines are set to be agreed to clamp down on ‘no frills’ cremation firms storing deceased people at a public mortuary near Bristol.

Funeral directors would be fined between £100 to £200 a day from April next year if they leave bodies at the mortuary in Flax Bourton.

Bristol City Council is proposing to pass a new byelaw which would charge funeral directors a fine after three days following the end of a coroner’s investigation. The fines are addressing concerns that the Flax Bourton mortuary is running out of space.

Another issue is the increasing problem of national direct cremation companies using Flax Bourton as “their own private mortuary”. Councillors are due to vote on the byelaw during a full council meeting on Tuesday, January 9.

A report to the full council said: “There is increasing pressure on storage capacity at Flax Bourton mortuary. This is partly due to some funeral directors not collecting deceased people promptly.

“At the moment, funeral businesses make no payment to help cover the costs of keeping the deceased at Flax Bourton mortuary. This means the cost is borne by taxpayers. Some funeral directors … are keeping deceased people at the mortuary for long periods after the coroner has released the bodies for collection.

“This means the taxpayer is paying to store the deceased people for longer, while the private funeral companies keep the fees paid by the families as profit. The four councils responsible for funding the mortuary cannot afford to continue to subsidise the operations of private funeral directors in the way that we do now.”

Flax Bourton mortuary investigates unexplained or unnatural deaths in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset. The four councils covering these areas pay to run the mortuary.

The council consulted the public about the changes for six weeks last September and October. The consultation showed two thirds agreeing with the charges, with 27 per cent disagreeing. Several local funeral directors responded and shared their concerns about direct cremation companies.

One funeral business said: “It would make no difference to us or the average funeral director. We collect within 48 hours. The problem is being caused by national online companies who don’t have local storage facilities, and use the mortuary for temporary storage.”

Another added: “Where humanly possible we always collect our deceased within three working days, and we are fortunate that we have the mortuary facilities at our premises. It’s a shame the larger and direct funeral companies are now ruining it for everyone, by using the facilities as their own private mortuary.”

Direct cremation firms offer far cheaper services than average funerals. The cremations happen without a ceremony, and have grown in popularity across the country since the pandemic.

The Flax Bourton mortuary is the “dedicated disaster mortuary” for Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire, and one of three for the South West. However, higher numbers of deceased people staying longer than needed means the mortuary is less able to play this emergency role, creating a risk that councils might need to spend a lot of money on extra storage during a catastrophe.