Board of Deputies thanks Financial Conduct Authority for averting ‘serious threat to Jewish funerals’

Board of Deputies Vice President Amanda Bowman has thanked the Financial Conduct Authority for a Policy Statement which has averted a serious threat to traditional Jewish funerals.

Amanda said: “The serious threat to traditional Jewish funerals posed by new proposed regulations, has thankfully been headed off the Financial Conduct Authority’s latest Policy Statement on the Regulation of Funerals Plans. We thank the FCA for their engagement and time with the Board of Deputies on this matter in months of talks to get to the right outcome.”

Background information

• In June 2019, the Government announced a consultation on new regulations for pre-paid funeral plans. In its response to the consultation, it indicated that these new regulations would not be imposed on not for profit providers of faith funerals
• In February 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority outlined a consultation on how it would regulate funeral providers but with no implied exemption for not for profit providers of faith funerals
• Some of the regulations would have made it impractical to run a Jewish funeral service. For example, providers would have had to provide a guarantee that another body could provide similar funerals in the advent of the funeral service ceasing to operate. But it is doubtful there is enough capacity in the Jewish funeral system to do this for all operators. It would have also imposed large burdens on synagogues as well as burial societies, given that funeral services are provided in exchange for synagogue membership fees.
• For more examples on how the new regulations may have had extremely difficult consequences for Jewish burial societies, or would have passed on very large costs synagogue members, please contact the Board of Deputies.