Prime Minister backs fresh funeral industry regulation following Legacy case
Robert Bush was jailed for 67 offences over the burial and treatment of dead bodies.
Andy Burnham had backed the regulation of funeral homes and mortuaries as a disgraced funeral director from Hull was jailed for 67 offences over the burial and treatment of dead bodies.
The Prime Minister offered his sympathies to the families of victims of disgraced funeral director Robert Bush, who was jailed for 20 years at Hull Crown Court on Friday afternoon for offences carried out at his business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.
Bush has pleaded guilty to 67 offences over 12 years, affecting hundreds of victims at his business. Prosecutors said Bush’s case is “unprecedented”.
A separate independent inquiry into the crimes of David Fuller, who abused at least 100 dead women and girls in hospital mortuaries in south-east England, recommended regulation of the funeral sector to prevent similar crimes being committed again.
Speaking on a visit to Sheffield, Mr Burnham said:
“I do back those calls, and there were recommendations in the Fuller Report that will be implemented because we have seen appalling situations like this before.
“I feel for the families and I know it’ll be a difficult day for them with these matters in court again. I was truly horrified when I heard what had happened. Appalling for any family to go through that. This needs a proper response in terms of the regulation needed, to make sure no family goes through that again.
“People, I think, would assume that the highest standards apply to this area and we’ve got to make sure that they do apply and that there can’t be any repeat of what we’ve seen.”
This week a court has heard that Bush, 48, breached the trust of grieving families “on an almost industrial scale” by keeping bodies for months after they should have been cremated, giving out the wrong ashes, taking money for funeral plans without making any arrangements, and stealing charity donations collected at services.
In April, he pleaded guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and theft from 12 charities as he did not pass on donations given at funerals.
Bush has previously admitted to 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies found at the site, and four “foetus allegations” of fraud, where he presented ashes to women falsely saying that they were “the remains of their unborn”.
Bush also pleaded guilty to a further charge of fraud, covering the ashes of 57 people between 2017 and 2024, and one of fraudulent trading relating to funeral plans between 2012 and 2024.