CMA Funerals Market Order 2021
The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) is an independent, non-ministerial department of UK Government. They work 'to promote competition for the benefit of consumers, both within and outside the UK.' -
Gov.uk.
The CMA is the competition regulator in the UK, responsible for strengthening business competition and ensuring a fairer, more competitive market for consumers.
The CMA released its Final Report: 'Funerals Market Investigation' on 18th December 2020. On June 16th 2021 they published a formal set of requirements that all UK funeral businesses must abide by. These requirements have been made a legally binding order under the Enterprise Act 2002. All Funeral Directors are required to make some changes to ensure they meet with the requirements by 16th September 2021.
To ensure you are ready to meet the CMA requirements, you must make sure you:
- Display and Publish the CMA Standardised Price List, Optional Extras Price List and Crematoria Information.
- Offer CMA Attended and Unattended Funeral Prices (or state not offered if no unattended funeral is available).
- Cease any arrangements with third parties (eg care homes and hospices) by 16th September 2021. This includes any payments or gifts. After 16th September, establishing any new arrangements of this type will be prohibited.
- The above also applies to the solicitation of business through police and coroner contracts.
- Publish your terms of business and disclose any other interests you may have in the industry (eg ownership of crematoria etc.)
- If you have five or more branches you will need to regularly report your revenue to the CMA. Larger Funeral Directors with ten or more branches will also be required to share additional information with the CMA.
To be ready to meet the requirements of the CMA, you will need to make sure you have the CMA Standardised Price List and Additional Options Price List available for the public to view on your website (no more than one click away from the homepage), in your funeral home and available in printed format for families to take home or receive via email.
The NAFD have taken a leading role in helping Funeral Directors meet these mandatory requirements. They have compiled some really helpful FAQs
here.
The NAFD advises you to display the CMA Standardised Price List and Additional Options Price List 'on any other online services you use.'
Funeral-notices.co.uk are able to further support you to meet the required changes by providing you with an additional way to display your Standardised Price List online. We will be in touch in the coming weeks with how this will look and how we can support you in keeping the information our audience sees on your free Directory Listing, on funeral-notices.co.uk, up to date.
It is really important that you act now to make these changes before the deadline on 16th September. We are here to support you in as many ways as we can.
If you do not have a website, the CMA says: 'If a Funeral Director does not have a website but markets itself using other online channels or platforms, it must display the Standardised Price List', 'in a clear and prominent manner on those other online channels or platforms'.
We hope that by implementing a few changes to the way prices are displayed on your listings page on funeral-notices.co.uk, we can provide you with a simple solution to make sure the information we offer our audience about your funeral home is up to date, consistent with CMA guidelines and may help you in meeting the above criteria.
We will be in touch with further information about that soon, in the meantime we have put together a few resources that may be useful to you below.
The CMA have issued a template for their Standardised Price List, you can view or download it here:
CMA STANDARDISED PRICE LIST You can read the CMA Final Report December 2020
here.
For the latest NAFD advice on the CMA report, visit their website
here.
To discuss this article, to find out how to display funeral notices on your own website or for help booking your free online notices, please contact us using the form below and an Account Manager will be in touch:
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This article does not constitute legal advice, please ensure you consult the appropriate bodies to ensure compliance.
