Mortuary and post-mortem facilities play a critical but often overlooked role in the operational resilience, dignity, and compliance of NHS estates. While these environments are highly specialised, the technical guidance that underpins their design, specification, and procurement has not always kept pace with evolving clinical, regulatory, and operational demands.
As part of our ongoing work in this sector, we recently undertook a detailed review of Health Building Note 16-01: Facilities for mortuaries, including body stores and post-mortem services. HBN 16-01 has undoubtedly provided a valuable foundation for many years. However, our assessment suggests that elements of the guidance, in relation to mortuary cold rooms, may now be outdated and, in several areas, lack the level of technical depth required to support modern mortuary operations, resilience planning, and long-term compliance.
Alongside this review, our real-world project experience has highlighted a further concern. We have repeatedly encountered situations where third-party organisations engaged to develop specifications or manage tender processes demonstrate significant gaps in fundamental technical knowledge. This can lead to poorly defined requirements, inconsistent tender responses, increased project risk, and avoidable operational challenges once facilities are delivered.
In response, we have published a technical white paper that draws together practical observations from live projects, procurement exercises, and facility operations. The paper is not intended as a criticism of existing standards or stakeholders, but as a constructive contribution to the discussion on how technical guidance and procurement practices might be strengthened to better serve NHS trusts, estates teams, clinicians, and service providers.
We believe there is a clear opportunity to improve consistency, technical clarity, and outcomes across mortuary projects — particularly at a time when pressures on NHS infrastructure continue to increase.
👉 You can read the full technical white paper here:
We welcome feedback and further discussion on this research. Please contact us on 01179 646 497 or via email.
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