Brent Council is among the top spending local authorities in the country when it comes to public health funerals.

Public health funerals are carried out by local authorities when someone dies, and a service cannot be arranged. This can be due to a lack of family or financial means to arrange a funeral.

Brent spent almost £70,000 on 33 public health funerals in 2018/19, according to research by insurance group Royal London.

This was the eighth highest amount in the UK, with Birmingham City Council, Cornwall Council and Salford City Council making up the top three.

The council said it will continue to go “above and beyond” to support residents and ensure that their lives are marked appropriately.

It added it was “unclear” from the research whether the amounts spent took into account money reclaimed by councils from the deceased’s estate.

Cllr Krupa Sheth, responsible for funerals at Brent Council, said: “We support the call for better guidance to ensure other authorities follow Brent’s lead in going ‘above and beyond’ when it comes to public health funerals.

“Currently the rules state that councils simply need to ‘dispose of the body’ which means a sort of ‘collect and cremate’ service that doesn’t seem dignified at all.

“We want to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity in life and in death, regardless of their financial or family situation, which is why we set up our own funeral service to help control the quality and cost of these funerals, while helping everyone else avoid unnecessary expense and debt.”

Royal London wants to see legislation brought in to ensure “minimum standards” are met when it comes to public health funerals.

For example, Louise Eaton-Terry, funeral cost expert at Royal London, said everyone should be able to attend a public health funeral and have the option to collect their loved one’s ashes.