Freeman Brothers was first established as a funeral director in Horsham, West Sussex in 1855. The company now has a further three offices across the county – in Billingshurst, Crawley and Hurstpierpoint – and continues to provide funeral services via a dedicated team of experienced colleagues. Today, Manager, Abi Pattenden, provides an update regarding the recently-implemented Medical Examiner system and the impact it’s having on the arranging of funerals…

A new system regarding the registration of deaths in England and Wales was implemented in September 2024. Now that this has been in place for several months, we thought it was time to update you on how these changes are bedding in, and what impact it’s having on the administration around deaths.

As the winter has progressed, the topic has been covered via various local and national news programmes, and been discussed extensively within the funeral sector too. It was anticipated that the pressures of the winter season would cause problems, and this has indeed happened, as Rachel Bradbourne, Director of External Affairs at the National Association of Funeral Directors reported in the February 2025 edition of Funeral Director Monthly.

She stated, ‘Rather than streamline the process, the new arrangements…have exacerbated existing pressures and increased delays across the whole pathway. The process of investigating natural deaths is now more convoluted, with vital communication taking longer and funeral directors unable to advise families when a death will be cleared for registration…the knock-on effect being funeral arrangements are delayed by up to four weeks and, in some places, even longer.’

I’m disappointed that I’m not able to share more positive news at this point, and Rachel’s words certainly echo the experience of many of our customers. Another issue that is regularly being reported by those we are supporting is that they find it incredibly difficult that the Medical Examiner doesn’t engage with them. That is to say, whilst contact details for the Medical Examiner are provided, and many people who are attempting arrange funerals are proactive in trying to chase up information, they are unable to obtain more information, and are instead left waiting for the Medical Examiner to contact them. In the instance of bereavement, this can represent a significant challenge – many people find comfort in being able to engage with a system and know when things are likely to happen, so to be left out of the conversation is often something that they find difficult.

In any circumstance, our professional approach has always been to be honest with our customers, or anyone else who is requesting information from us. This means that, from the first call we receive notifying us of someone’s wish to engage our services, we will only promise what we are able to guarantee.

What this means in terms of booking a funeral, is that we won’t fully confirm a date and time until we know when the death is officially being registered. This is because a death must be registered before a funeral can take place. We are happy to book a funeral on the basis of a registration appointment being confirmed, as these aren’t bookable until the Registrar knows that the previous paperwork is in place, but until this point, any booking with us can only be considered as provisional.

This approach may seem risk averse, however we do this in order to ensure that we are able to deliver on what we have offered. We know from experience that having to change what were previously regarded as confirmed arrangements can be both distressing and inconvenient, and so we would much rather act only when we are certain that things can go ahead. Other organisations may offer different options, and that is their right, we can only make our own decisions in what we believe is the best interest of our customers and ourselves.

We hope that our approach continues to mark us out as a trustworthy provider of funeral services, which acts with integrity. We are also hopeful that the creases in the system will be ironed out in time, and that the process will ultimately work more efficiently, with better communication offered to those administrating the death of a loved one.

If you have any questions regarding the arranging of a funeral, our advice is always freely given without obligation. Details of how to contact us can be found here.