Public Health Funeral data
This data shows the number of public health funerals each year and the associated costs. Information relating to Public Health Funerals is published every 6 months on this page.
Details
The table below shows the number of public health funerals, the costs associated with them, and whether they were recovered from the estate.
We are unable to disclose the following categories of information regarding Public Health Funerals:
- names of all the deceased for which PHFs have been carried out
- last known address for all deceased for which PHFs have been carried out
- date of birth and death of the deceased
Freedom of Information Requests
Although we regularly receive Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for this type of information, it is considered that the following FOIA exemptions are engaged in relation to this information:
Section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act (prejudice to investigations and proceedings conducted by a public authority, re prevention or detection of crime)
We consider that disclosure of this information would put the estate of the deceased at risk and would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime by highlighting a property as unoccupied. We also consider that disclosure of this information would be likely to increase the risk of identity theft and fraudulent activity on the estate.
Although we aim to be transparent and accountable to the public, we must ensure that we do not disclose information which would increase prejudice the prevention or detection of crime. Furthermore, we consider that withholding this information would protect the public purchase from criminal activity, protect the availability of public resources which would otherwise be dedicated to the detection of identity fraud and reduce the risk of fraudulent activity on the estate.
Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act (information provided in confidence)
This information is not already available in this format within the public domain. The information is not trivial and therefore has the necessary quality of confidence. We consider that there is an implied expectation of confidence and that disclosure would be of detriment to the confider as a loss of privacy would occur. As an actionable breach of confidence can be taken by a representative of the deceased, we consider that this particular exemption also applies to names, address, and date of birth information.
| Financial year | Number of public health funerals | Total cost | Costs recovered from estate | Number of cremations | Number of burials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 7 | £21,209 | £15,554.97 | 7 | 0 |
| 2024/25 | 11 | £33,286 | £17,125.57 | 10 | 1 |
Documents
Last updated 26 January 2026