The Government admits it was wrong to ban families from funerals

Banning close relatives from funerals during lockdown was wrong, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted. He said, “Distancing guidance was really strongly interpreted. People didn’t go to bury their spouses of 50 years. We realised we made a mistake and we changed the guidance.”

Grieving relatives were left heartbroken at the height of the pandemic when they were banned from burying family members because of the need to maintain social distancing.  In a webchat discussion with members of the women’s club AllBright yesterday, Matt Hancock said the guidance was a mistake and regretted that it had been “really strongly interpreted”.  He said, “We put out social distancing guidance, which was really strongly interpreted, and it meant that in the peak of the pandemic, lots of people didn’t go to the funeral even of someone they’ve been married to for 50 years. And there was a little boy from south London who was buried without his parents there, and that really affected me. So we realised we’d made a mistake and we changed the guidance.”

Under the guidance, immediate family members were allowed to attend funerals so long as the services took place within strict social distancing guidelines and with a limit on numbers of people attending.  However, funeral directors have accused councils of misinterpreting lockdown rules by banning family members from crematoria and graveyards and going “way beyond” their legal powers.  Ministers then had to intervene by writing to councils to instruct them to work with faith groups and funeral directors to forge “safe, sensitive and innovative ways for funerals to take place”.

Restrictions have now been relaxed. Find out here how we at Wells Funeral Services can assist you in arranging a respectful but cost-effective funeral.

Source: The Daily Telegraph