Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of Local Authorities contracting funeral services where those services fall outside of a Local Authority's obligations under Section 46 of the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984.

Local authorities are independent of central government. My department has made no estimate of the number of the number of local authorities contracting funeral services outside of their obligations.