More than 50 Lancashire funeral homes have so far been inspected after the government recommended local councils check up on the undertakers operating in their area.

No concerns have been raised following visits so far carried out across the county.

However, the majority of Lancashire’s local authorities are yet to complete – or even begin – the inspections, while two have said they have no plans to do them at all.

The Ministry of Justice wrote to all councils with environmental health responsibilities in April and strongly suggested they assess funeral parlours to ensure they were caring for the deceased properly.

It came in the wake of a police investigation into a Hull undertakers due to a concern for care of the deceased report.

Rossendale, Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Councils have completed their visits and say no action needs to be taken.

Hyndburn has nearly finished its inspections, while Pendle is just under halfway through its list – and neither council has found anything of concern. Results are awaited from Lancaster and Preston.

Chorley and South Ribble are recommending firms join a trade association for the sector in order to maintain good standards instead and Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Ribble Valley and West Lancashire are yet to respond.

There is no mandatory funeral home inspection regime currently in place in the UK. 

Last week, the chair of an inquiry into the standard of such businesses said people are “shocked” to find funeral services are unchecked and anyone can set themselves up in the business.

An interim report by Sir Jonathan Michael said such a situation “cannot be right”.

The government said the recommended inspections of funeral homes should focus on hygiene, premises condition and capability, traceability and transparency,  the level of dignity observed and condition of the deceased and pre-paid funeral plans and general financial processes.

In Hyndburn of the 16 funeral directors in the borough, 14 have so far been visited by the council, one more is due to be inspected and another is not currently operating.

A spokesperson said:  “Overall, satisfactory standards were found.”

In Pendle, a council spokesperson said: "We’ve visited five of the 12 [funeral homes] in Pendle.

"No issues [have been] identified so far and we expect to have visited all sites by the end of the year."

In Rossendale, nine funeral homes were checked over the summer and a council spokesperson said “no action was needed [or] taken [against] any of them”.