asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the average percentage increase in burial charges at council-owned crematoria and cemeteries during the last five years.

No. My right hon. Friend has no function to approve such charges and maintains no statistics of them. Crematoria statistics up to 1974–75, published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, are available in the Library of the House but any comparisons with pre-1974 charges would have to take account of the changes in local government areas in April 1974.