Funeral director price lists: what the CMA rules mean for you

Comparing funeral directors used to be genuinely difficult, because prices for broadly similar services could vary significantly between providers, and it was rarely easy to see, side by side, what you were actually being offered. Following a lengthy investigation into the funeral sector, the Competition and Markets Authority introduced rules specifically to fix this, and it is worth understanding what they mean in practice, because they exist to help you, not the funeral director.

The Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 is a legally binding order made under the Enterprise Act 2002, following a two-and-a-half-year CMA investigation into the funeral sector. The investigation found that prices for similar services differed meaningfully between funeral directors, and that the way pricing information was presented made it genuinely hard for families to compare options and make an informed choice, particularly at a time when they were unlikely to be in a position to shop around extensively. The Order was published on 16 June 2021, and its requirements came fully into force by 16 September 2021, applying to essentially every funeral director operating in the UK.

At the centre of the Order is a requirement for every funeral director to produce and display a Standardised Price List, usually referred to as an SPL. This has to be published online, reachable within a single click from the funeral director's homepage, and it also has to be clearly and prominently displayed within their branch and, generally, in their window. This means you should be able to find and review a funeral director's pricing before ever stepping inside, without needing to call and ask, and without needing to be already in a vulnerable, time-pressured position to get the information.

The Standardised Price List has to include specific things, set out by the CMA precisely so that different funeral directors' lists can be compared like for like. It must show the headline price of what the CMA calls an "Attended Funeral" — broadly, a funeral with a coffin, care of the deceased, and a service that mourners can attend — and, where the funeral director offers one, an "Unattended Funeral", which is closer to what most people mean by a direct cremation. Alongside these headline prices, the list has to break down the price of the individual items that make up that headline figure, such as the coffin, transport and staffing, so you can see what you are actually paying for rather than just a single bundled number. It must also show the price of a defined set of additional products and services that families commonly add on, such as extra limousines, embalming, or additional viewing time, so these do not appear only once you are already partway through arranging things.

In practice, the most useful way to use this is to request the Standardised Price List from more than one funeral director in your area before you commit to arranging anything with a specific one. Because the headline "Attended Funeral" and "Unattended Funeral" prices are defined the same way by every provider under the Order, you can compare these figures directly, rather than trying to compare bundled packages that might include quite different things under the surface. It is also worth checking the itemised breakdown underneath the headline figure, since this is where you will see whether, for example, disbursements like cremation or burial fees are included in the headline price or listed separately.

Alongside the legal requirement to publish a price list, it is also worth knowing that many funeral directors belong to trade associations such as the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) or the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF). Membership of either is voluntary, but firms that do join commit, as a condition of membership, to abide by a code of practice covering transparent pricing, dignified care and honest marketing, and members are subject to independent monitoring and give families access to an independent dispute resolution scheme if something goes wrong. In 2024, the NAFD and SAIF agreed a shared foundation for their codes, based on the statutory code already in place in Scotland, bringing the two main associations closer together on the standards families can expect. Trade body membership is a separate, additional layer of assurance to the legal CMA requirements, rather than a replacement for them, so it is a reasonable extra thing to ask about, but not something to worry about if a funeral director you like simply is not a member.

None of this is about finding the cheapest possible option, and a lower headline price does not automatically mean a better fit for what your family wants. It simply means you now have a genuine, structured basis for comparing funeral directors on price, in the same way you might compare any other significant service, at a time when doing that research yourself might otherwise feel like one task too many. Our directory lists funeral directors so you can review and compare their price lists before making contact.

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