The family of a man whose body was found in a Hull funeral home after he was supposed to have been cremated have said it is “easier to open a funeral directors than it is a sandwich shop”, as they urged the government to regulate the industry.

Michaela Baldwin said she had assumed funeral directors were subject to some regulation when her family used one in Hull after the death of her stepfather, Danny Middleton.

“I’ve always thought that funeral parlours, funeral directors, anyone who deals with bodies have to have licences and regulations,” she said.

After the funeral, the family were given what they were told were Middleton’s ashes by Legacy funeral directors, only to be contacted later by police when his body was found uncremated at its Hessle Road premises.

Funeral director Robert Bush, 47, has been charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and 30 counts of fraud by false representation after 35 bodies and “a quantity” of human ashes were discovered there. He has yet to enter a plea and is on bail until a hearing on 15 October.

Other families, MPs and funeral industry organisations have joined Baldwin in calling for urgent action to regulate the sector in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Full statutory regulation is already in place in Scotland.

The renewed call comes days after a mother said she was left screaming after seeing her baby’s body propped up in front of the TV at the home of a funeral director in Leeds.

Zoe Ward said she had expected her baby son Bleu, who died in hospital in 2021 of brain damage, to be kept in a professional setting instead of the home of Amie Upton, who runs a baby bereavement service that includes providing baby clothing and taking handprints.

Upton has since been banned from hospitals in Leeds and had been reported to the police but West Yorkshire police said no crimes had been committed.

Baldwin, who does not know whose ashes her family received, said she previously had no idea the industry was subject to no legal requirements.

She said: “It’s out of respect and dignity that it needs to be regulated ... It’s easier to open a funeral directors than it is a sandwich shop.”

This call was backed by MPs including Mark Sewards and Emma Hardy, whose constituents were affected by the Leeds and Hull cases.

It was also supported by the two trade organisations for the funeral industry – the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD), which represents a large portion of the profession, and the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF), which tends to represent smaller, family-run funeral directors.

About 80% of funeral directors are members of either NAFD or SAIF, which have similar codes of practice and carry out independent inspections, but membership is not compulsory and there is no oversight at all for those who do not join.

Both organisations said they had been pushing the government but it needed to move more quickly to regulate.

Declan Maguire, the author of a co-regulator proposal that has already been submitted to the government, who is also a member of SAIF’s executive committee, said the organisation was waiting “for government to give us the green light”.

He said regulation was working in Scotland, where 10% of the UK’s funerals take place, and the Scottish model could quickly and easily be implemented in the other nations.

He added: “It doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling, it just takes a response from government to say: ‘OK, let’s start work.’ We’re ready to go essentially.”

Andrew Judd, the chief executive of NAFD, said unlike marriages, of which some people have multiple, “you only get one funeral”.

Judd highlighted the Fuller inquiry, held to investigate issues raised after the crimes of hospital maintenance worker David Fuller, who was jailed in 2021 for murdering two women and abusing at least 100 dead women and girls in the mortuary of the now-closed Kent and Sussex hospital and the Tunbridge Wells hospital, over a 15-year period.

The inquiry made recommendations including a licensing scheme, mandatory standards and regular inspections.

Judd said: “The Fuller inquiry concluded that it’s an urgent matter. And we still haven’t heard anything about what happens next.”

He added: “Until we get some kind of formal statute to support the work of trade associations, these things are going to happen. And when they do happen, the consequences last a lifetime.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to taking action to ensure the highest standards are always met by funeral directors, and are now considering the full range of options to improve standards.”