Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people who purchase pre-paid funeral services from a Local Authority outside of current Financial Conduct Authority and Competitions and Markets Authority regulation have adequate consumer protections.

The Government legislated in 2021 to bring pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This made it illegal for firms to sell pre-paid funeral plans without authorisation from the FCA, protecting 1.6 million customers and their families.

In the preceding public consultation in 2019, the Government stated it had not seen evidence that plans offered by local authorities required regulation from a conduct or prudential perspective. The Government therefore proposed that local authorities should be excluded from FCA regulation, and this position was maintained in the consultation response published in March 2020. The Government is committed to regulating only where there is a clear case for doing so.

Pre-paid funeral plans bought from local authorities fall outside the remit of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. Residents who are unhappy with the service they have received can raise a complaint directly with their local authority. Where a complaint remains unresolved, residents in England can submit a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.