Whilst the Government does not have operational responsibility for the provision of funeral services, we are aware of funeral delays in some areas and acknowledge that these are often exacerbated by pressures from within the wider death management system.<\/p>
Government departments are taking a collaborative approach to reforming the death registration system as part of the roll out of the statutory medical examiner scheme which will come into force in April 2024. The doctor who attended the deceased during their last illness has a legal responsibility to complete a Medical Certificate Cause of Death (MCCD) as soon as possible to enable the registration of the death to take place. Guidance for doctors on completing an MCCD, available on Gov.uk, emphasises this point. As part of the work on the statutory medical examiner scheme, the Department of Health and Social Care is looking at expanding the pool of doctors who can sign the MCCD forms. When the demand on civil registration services is high, death registration appointments will always take priority over other registration appointments.<\/p>
The Government continues to look at wider improvements to the death management system\u2019s capacity and resilience, including mortuary capacity. The shortage of pathologists is a long-standing and cross-cutting issue. The Government is determined to make progress as soon as practicable. To that end, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State is engaging with Ministerial colleagues to implement effective solutions through a cross-government action plan.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4941", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bellamy"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bellamy"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2023-09-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2023-09-19T14:22:55.317Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "54"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2023-09-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Funerals: Standards"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of delays in funerals being caused by (1) the existing system for registering a death, (2) the number of available pathologists, (3) delays in completion of Medical Certificate Cause of Death forms and access to local GPs, (4) the availability of mortuary storage at local hospitals and public mortuaries, and (5) any delays by medical examiners.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/302", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Rooker"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Rooker"} ], "uin" : "HL9990"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1248999", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department of Health and Social Care"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1248999/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
We have provided over £150million in additional funding to the hospice sector to date during the pandemic and have made up to £200 million available to the sector for additional capacity between April and July, and we continue to work closely with hospices to support their essential work. alongside this, hospices have benefited from the financial support offered by HM Treasury to all charities, such as paying no business rates for their shops next year and applying for a Business Interruption Loan. Charities, alongside other sectors, can also access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the replacement Job Support Scheme and charity shops, which are already eligible for 80% charitable rate relief, will benefit from the new enhanced retail rate relief at 100%. We continue to keep the financial impact of COVID-19 on hospices under review.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4708", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bethell"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bethell"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2021-02-09", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2021-02-09T15:09:03.58Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2020-11-04", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Hospices: Coronavirus"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase the level of financial support available for hospices to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/248", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Jones of Cheltenham"} ], "uin" : "HL9990"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/967500", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Transport"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/967500/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and Network Rail have agreed service recovery plans in place that are activated depending on the specific incident, its location on the network, destination and time of day.<\/p>
<\/p>
Recognising the potential impact of delays on passengers these plans will typically balance trying to get the maximum number of passengers to their destination as quickly as possible, recovering the delays whilst also attempting to ensure no further delays and obstructions are introduced across the network. There will be times that these plans need to be adapted to suit the situation and scale of the incident. As such it is important that decisions are taken by operational staff within Network Rail and GTR as they are best placed to understand the potential impact on passengers on a case by case basis.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4584", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Sugg"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Baroness Sugg"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-09-18", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-09-18T11:37:06.693Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "27"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Transport"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-09-04", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Govia Thameslink Railway"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will meet with senior officials from Govia Thameslink to discuss the provision of automatic replacement services to London Kings Cross to ensure passengers can get to London when the Peterborough to Horsham line is blocked.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1251", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Naseby"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Naseby"} ], "uin" : "HL9990"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 3, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }