A “workable solution” is needed to deal respectfully with up to 300,000 sets of unclaimed ashes across the UK, the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) has said.
The organisation said keeping large numbers of uncollected cremated remains can result in problems for funeral directors who do not have enough storage space to hold them.
The organisation said while it has no exact figure, its research suggests somewhere in the region of between 250,000 and 300,000 sets of ashes remain unclaimed.
Reasons for this are varied, the NAFD said, from family disputes, to illness, a desire to inter two sets of ashes together, or that a grieving relative is struggling with the decision to collect ashes.
The Law Commission has undertaken a consultation on reforming the law around burial and cremation and has proposed a deadline to collect unclaimed ashes before they are returned to a crematorium.
It stated: “If the applicant does not respond within four weeks, the funeral director should be able to return the ashes to the crematorium, and the crematorium should have a duty to accept them.
“The crematorium would then be able to bury or scatter the ashes under its existing powers.
“This provisional proposal would apply retrospectively, that is, to ashes which are currently unclaimed and in funeral directors’ possession, as well as to those which are not collected in the future.”
A report with final recommendations is expected at the end of this year.
The NAFD said it agrees with the overall intention of the commission’s proposals but said four weeks may not be a long enough period and suggest extending this to eight weeks at a minimum.
Rachel Bradburne, the NAFD’s director of external affairs, said: “Changing family patterns, people residing abroad, or illness could easily delay this process for longer than a month.
“In addition, crematoria in most cases do not have the capacity to store ashes on site. However, the ability to return ashes after a set period would prevent the legacy issue getting any worse.”
She said crematoria will not be in a position to accept thousands of sets of ashes, so a sector-wide solution is needed to deal with the historic remains currently being held by funeral directors.
She said: “This is currently under review by various organisations, including members of the Deceased Management Advisory Group (DMAG), who are liaising with stakeholders to find a workable solution to this sector-wide problem.”
Ms Bradburne said the NAFD has strict guidelines for the storage and management of remains at its members’ premises, being required to “store each set of remains in a designated, locked, clean, dry and well-maintained location”.
She added: “All remains must be stored securely along with the relevant cremation certificate. Those outside of trade body membership are not required to afford each set of remains this degree of care and respect, which is of concern to NAFD.”
She said their funeral director members remain “incredibly sensitive” to the challenges faced by families and will “always try to accommodate the needs and wishes of their clients when they are known”.
She added: “When the wishes are not known we want to find a way to ensure that all the sets of historic remains that are currently sat with funeral directors can be laid to rest finally, respectfully, and in a way that is reassuring for the wider public.”
