Privacy Policy

Last updated: 31 October 2026

Who we are

The Modern Funeral Ltd, trading as The Modern Funeral, is the data controller for the personal information described here. That means we decide how and why it is used. Company number 08474275. 19 Station Road, Preston Park, Brighton BN1 6SF.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a data controller. Our registration number is ZC178822.

What this policy covers

This policy covers the personal information we collect when you contact us, arrange or take part in a funeral or an event, hire our space, join our mailing list, contact us on social media, or use our website.

Information about a person who has died is generally outside UK data protection law. We still treat it as confidential, with the same care.

The information we collect

Your name and contact details, and your relationship to the person who has died.
The details of the arrangements, and our correspondence with you.
Estimates, invoices and payment records.
Details of suppliers and professionals we work with.
Material for a ceremony or tribute, such as photographs, music, readings and recordings.
What you send us through the website, and basic technical information about visits to it.
Access needs, so that we can make our space and our service work for you.

We collect more sensitive information, such as health, access needs, religious or philosophical beliefs, dietary needs or safeguarding concerns, only when we genuinely need it.

How we receive information

Mostly from you: by phone, email, the website, social media, in person, or when you book an event. Sometimes from others: the customer who instructed us, the family, a celebrant, a supplier, a hospital, hospice, care home, medical examiner, coroner or registrar, an executor, or an adviser.

How we use your information

To answer your enquiry, and to arrange and deliver the funeral or event.
To keep in touch with you, and to work with suppliers and venues.
To send estimates and invoices, and to take payment.
To meet our legal, tax and regulatory duties.
To keep people safe, including safeguarding.
To deal with complaints.
To run community events and hire out our space.
To send our newsletter, only if you have asked for it.
To keep our website secure.

We never sell personal information. We do not use identifiable information about a funeral to train public AI systems.

Our lawful bases

We use your information because we have a contract with you, because the law requires it, because we have a legitimate interest that does not override your rights, because you have given consent (for example, for our newsletter or to share your story), or, rarely, to protect someone’s life in an emergency. For more sensitive information we also rely on an additional condition, such as your explicit consent, a legal requirement, or protecting someone from serious harm.

Who we share information with

Only those who need it to deliver the funeral or event, or to meet the law:

Crematoria, cemeteries, burial grounds and natural burial grounds.
Medical examiners, coroners, registrars, hospitals, hospices and care homes.
Celebrants, and suppliers such as florists, printers, caterers, transport firms, artists and venues.
Our accountant, payment providers, insurers and professional advisers.
The companies that provide our website, email, cloud storage, accounting and booking systems.
The police or a regulator, where the law requires it or someone’s safety depends on it.

International transfers

Some of our service providers may process information outside the UK. When they do, we make sure the safeguards UK law requires are in place. Ask us if you would like the details.

How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it, and we can say why for each kind of record. The UK GDPR does not set these periods. We set them, and we must be able to justify them.

Your funeral record (the arrangements, instructions, correspondence, certificates, the estimate and the invoice): six years from the date of the funeral. We chose six years because of the Limitation Act 1980. In England and Wales, a claim about a contract or about negligence can be brought for six years, so that is how long we may need the record to answer one.
Our accounting records: six years from the end of the accounting period they fall in. That is HMRC’s requirement. It is counted from a different date, so a copy of your invoice may stay in our accounts a little longer than your funeral record.
A record of where ashes went: six years from the last time they were moved (collected, divided, returned, interred or scattered). That can be long after the funeral, so the period starts at the last movement.
An enquiry that does not become a funeral: twelve months from our last contact with you, so that we can pick up where we left off if you come back to us.
Community event and space hire records: twelve months after the event, unless financial, safeguarding or insurance rules need them for longer.
Newsletter details: until you unsubscribe, or they are no longer current.
Supplier and professional contacts: normally six years after we stop working together.

If a complaint, a claim, an inquest or a regulatory enquiry is live, we keep what relates to it until it is finished, whatever the period above says.

We review our records once a year, so a record is deleted at the first review after its period ends, within twelve months. We delete the record or make it anonymous, and we keep a note of what was deleted and when. Our full Data Retention Policy is available on request.

Your rights

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or give it to you in a portable form where that is possible. You can object to how we use it, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Email contact@themodernfuneral.com. We may need to check who you are first. You can object to marketing at any time.

Marketing and public content

We send marketing only if you have opted in. You can unsubscribe with the link in any email, or by contacting us. We never publish an identifiable story, testimonial, photograph or recording of a funeral without clear permission.

Automated decisions

We do not make any decision with a legal or similarly significant effect on you by automated means or profiling alone.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. Our website does not use cookies to track you, and it does not use advertising cookies. WordPress sets cookies only when a member of our team logs in to update the site.

We count visits to our website with WP Statistics, which runs on our own website. It does not use cookies, and the figures stay with us.

If we ever add optional cookies, we will ask for your consent first, and you will be able to change your choice at any time.

Content from other websites

To show some parts of our pages, your browser connects to other companies, which can see your device’s IP address:

Google Fonts, for the lettering on our pages.
Trustindex, for the Google reviews on our home page, with reviewers’ photos from Google.
OpenStreetMap and CARTO, for the map on our contact page.

None of these sets cookies on our pages as far as we can see. Each company handles your information under its own privacy policy.

Making a complaint

Please talk to us first: contact@themodernfuneral.com or 01273 569 052. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, ico.org.uk.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when how we use information changes. The latest version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.