The National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM) have, after lengthy debate at their AGM in Buxton in September, decided on a name for their accredited mason scheme. It is the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons (BRAMM).

The scheme is open to all masons, not just NAMM members, although in order to remain a NAMM member masons will have to join the register by the end of 2004.

Joining the register costs £300 (£200 for NAMM members) for the business assessment plus £150 (£75 for NAMM members) for the assessment of each fixer. Assessment of fixers will be on-going with a similar charge each year.

The intention is that burial and cremation authorities will only allow masons on the register to erect memorials in their grounds. At the moment many councils maintain their own lists of approved masons, often charging masons to join that list. BRAMM is intended to be a central register to replace local ones.

The scheme received an enthusiastic welcome from the representatives of IBCA and the CBA (who have now joined forces as the Institute of Cemetery & Cremation Management [ICCM]), when NAMM member Jenny Gregson presented the scheme to them at their conference in September.

Assessment for fixers will be carried out at regional centres by masons trained as assessors by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). Assessments will be based on the standards already set out in NAMM\'s codes of business and working practice and incorporated into the new British Standard 8415, due to be published in January next year.

But at least one mason is concerned that if the register is adopted he could be put out of business. He is John Yates Marsden of Marsden Memorials in Manchester, who has been trading for 27 years and in the 1970s was NAMM\'s apprentice mason of the year.

He has written to NAMM because he wants to be included on the register but says he could fail in the assessment because he does not have a showroom.

It is a requirement of NAMM\'s code that members have at least four memorials on public display. The idea is to weed out so-called \'armchair\' masons (salesmen who visit the bereaved to sell from a catalogue but do not actually stock, make, decorate, inscribe or fix the memorials themselves).

But John is worried he could fall foul of the requirement because he only makes memorials to order. Most of his work comes from his existing memorials in cemeteries that carry his company name on them.

NAMM say each application will be assessed on its merits and although the criteria have been established in the codes of practice, the register is intended to identify bone fide masons whose businesses are run properly, with proper Health, Safety, Ethical & Environmental and insurance, and whose fixers can erect memorials safely. It is not intended to put legitimate masons out of business.