Public health funerals are funerals in the United Kingdom paid for by the local authority, where the relatives are either unwilling or unable to pay, or where no relatives can be found.
Public health funerals in England and Wales are governed by the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984. Local authorities are obliged to arrange a funeral where no arrangements are being made or have been made. Local authorities are permitted to recover the costs of such funerals from the estate of the deceased under the Act.
In some circumstances where a person dies in hospital the relevant NHS trust may arrange a funeral for the deceased; however, ultimately the duty to arrange the funeral rests with the local authority.
Note to Northampton Borough Council and it’s ALMO Northampton Partnership Homes
My current understanding is that in the period from 7th February 2016 to 3rd November 2017 a number of Northampton Partnership Homes tenants died and thirteen of the late tenants had public health funerals, the next of kin for all of them were traced, BUT it needed a tracing agent to find four of them?
Are you making the endeavours to capture such information as next of kin on your tenants (or are they now called customers) so that tracing agents were not needed?
Mr Norman Adams – August 2018 – Northampton
