Every death that occurs in England and Wales is required to be registered by statute and registration must take place with the registrar in the sub-district in which the death occurs.
While largely you will be dealing with predeath matters you may be asked for advice by the family of your clients when the death occurs.
The requirement to register is contained in s.15 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953. The Act goes on the specify the information that is required by the registrar. The registrar must be informed of the death and provided with a medical certificate giving the cause of death within five days and full information must be provided within 14 days. If an informant refuses to provide information requested by the registrar they may be fined. The information that must be provided is; the date and place of death, the full name of the deceased, their sex, marital status and maiden name where appropriate, their occupation and address, the name and occupation of a spouse, the cause of death and the full name and qualification of the informant.
A person who is qualified to be an informant is any relative of the deceased present at the death or in the sub-district where the death occurred. Any other person present at the death or in occupation of a house where a death occurs. The person arranging the disposal of the body can also be an informant but this cannot include a funeral director.
Where a death occurs abroad the death must be registered in accordance with the local regulations where the death occurs. The death should also be registered with the British Consul so that a record of the death is kept in England.
Following the registration of a death the registrar will issue a number of certificates. These include the normal ‘death certificate’ along with a certificate for burial or cremation for passing to the funeral director and a certificate of registration for production to the Department of Work and Pensions (form BD8) which enables benefits to be claimed.
The Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 requires a registrar who has been informed of a death within 12 months of its occurrence to report it to a coroner where a doctor was not in attendance at the death and hadn’t seen the deceased within 14 days before the death. The death must also be reported where a completed certificate of cause of death is not available, where the death appears to be unnatural, occurred during an operation or was the result of an industrial disease. The coroner must then decide whether to hold an inquest or post-mortem to determined the cause of death.
