Registering the death

 Normally, the doctor providing you with a medical certificate of cause of death will also give you a ‘notice to informant’ which they will attach to the medical certificate. This tells you how to register the death. However, during the emergency period, the notice to the informant is not issued. The information on how to register the death is given at the time of an appointment being made, either by email or by telephone booking.

Normally, the medical certificate has to be taken to the local register offices in the local council where the death occurred. Details of your local office can be found by visiting Find a register office (GOV.UK).

The death must be registered within five days of the medical certificate being issued (including weekends and bank holidays). Many register offices will only see someone by appointment. Current appointment times are at the moment allowing up to one hour (in normal circumstances a 40-minute appointment is allowed to include the Tell Us Once service). There is no cost to register a death.

Most deaths are registered by a relative but the death can be registered by specified others. The person registering the death needs to take the medical certificate and other documentation such as the person’s birth certificate, NHS medical card, proof of address, passport and so on. The registrar will want to know certain details about the person and will issue a “Certificate for Burial and Cremation”, which gives permission for funeral arrangements to take place. Visit the Bereavement Advice Centre to find out more about who can register the death, what documentation needs to be taken, and the forms the registrar will provide.

Tell Us Once is a government service that allows you to report a death to most government services all in one go. When registering the death the registrar will either fill in the form for the Tells Us Once service or give you a unique reference number to access it online. If your local register office doesn’t offer the Tell Us Once service or you choose not to use it, you’ll have to let the relevant organisations know about the death yourself. The registrar will give you a letter and reference number to help with this. 

Some offices will only generate the unique reference number and instructions on how to complete the service either online or by a free call telephone number. The Tell Us Once service is currently issued either by email or by post it is sent out with any death certificates of the registration that the informant requests. These are at a cost of £11.00 each. The Registrar at the time of registration will advise of those financial institutions that may require to see them and discuss a number required. Additional certified copies can be obtained after the registration at no extra cost. These can be applied for online or via the telephone on a secure website from the registration service responsible for the registration of the death.

1. As your register office will only see someone by appointment, call in advance to book an appointment. 
2. Normally, as well as taking the medical certificate to your appointment, you need to check with the registrar office or online as to what else you need to take. However, this is not applicable under the current pandemic.
3. It is only necessary to purchase a certain number of death certificates and this may vary on the number of financial institutions that the deceased personally has. Most institutions only require to see sight of the certificate which should then be returned to the next of kin or informant. The registrar can help you work out how many copies you might need.
4. When the person dies, a person appointed as an attorney must stop any action under the Lasting Power Attorney immediately and send the original LPA document and a copy of the donor’s death certificate to the Office of the Public Guardian.