The 30-person limit on funerals in England is set to be scrapped from May 17 at the earliest, it has emerged.
The cap on mourners is set to be axed ahead of schedule when England enters Step Three of its roadmap out of lockdown.
Currently funerals can only have 30 attendees while wakes are limited to 15 - a limit that was stuck to for Prince Philip's death.
That 30-person limit was due to remain in place, applying to both funerals and wakes, in Step Three of the roadmap from May 17 onwards.
However, the Mail on Sunday revealed the 30-person cap on funeral services will be lifted altogether in England's Step Three.
Instead, venues will be able to set their own capacity limits, as long as they are consistent with social distancing - two metres between mourners, or one metre plus mitigations.
The change will apply to both indoor and outdoor services, according to the newspaper.
More than 127,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test in the UK.
The Mail also reports that the one-metre-plus distancing rule will be axed in Step Four, from June 21 at the earliest.
But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today warned some restrictions will need to remain in place after June.
Speaking as the government trials replacing the 10-day isolation period for Covid contacts with daily rapid tests, he told the BBC: “We want to get to a position at the end of June where we can get life back as close to normal as possible.
“But there will still need to be some safeguards in place. That [replacing 10-day isolation with daily lateral flow tests] is one of the tools, one of the options we’ll look at, but no decisions have been made.
“I don’t want to prejudge it. It will look at things in the round. It will be particularly I think around distancing, maybe there’ll be something around masks.
“But I don’t really want to pre-judge - those are just some of the options.”
Weddings and wedding receptions will still be limited to 30 people in Step Three of the roadmap, though bar mitzvahs and christenings will be allowed again for the first time since the new year.
The government is hoping to remove limits on weddings and other "life events" in Step Four from June 21 at the earliest.
