In the unfortunate event that a person has passed away, there are three things that must be done in the first few days;
- Get a medical certificate from your GP or hospital doctor (this is necessary to register the death)
- Register the death within 5 days (8 days in Scotland). You will then receive the necessary documents for the funeral.
- Make the necessary funeral arrangements.
Register the death
If the death occurs at home
– Contact a funeral director.
– Arrange to collect the doctor’s medical certificate of death (usually from the surgery).
– Take this to the Registrars Office (together with the deceased’s medical card and birth certificate, if they are available) for the area in which the death took place. Alternatively you can register by declaration at any convenient Registrars Office but certificates will not be able as these will have to be posted to you a few days later.
– The Registrar will normally issue a green coloured certificate for you to give to your funeral director who will look after necessary arrangements for the funeral.
If the death occurs in hospital
– Collect the certificate from the hospital.
– Take this to the Registrars Office (together with the deceased’s medical card and birth certificate, if they are available) for the area in which the death took place. Alternatively you can register by declaration at any convenient Registrars Office but certificates will not be able as these will have to be posted to you a few days later.
– The Registrar will normally issue a green coloured certificate for you to give to your funeral director who will look after necessary arrangements for the funeral.
If the death has been reported to the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) they must give permission before registering the death.
You can register the death if you are a relative, a witness to the death, a hospital administrator or the person making the arrangements with the funeral directors.
You can use the ‘Register a Death’ page on the gov.uk website that will guide you through the process. This will also explain the registration process for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Arrange the funeral
The funeral can usually only take place after the death is registered. Most people use a funeral director, though you can arrange a funeral yourself.
Funeral costs can include:
– funeral director fees
– things the funeral director pays for on your behalf (called ‘disbursements’ or ‘third-party costs’), for example, crematorium or cemetery fees, or a newspaper announcement about the death
– local authority burial or cremation fees
Funeral directors may list all these costs in their quotes.