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11 minute read
When having suffered a recent bereavement, many families find themselves wondering how to get a Death Certificate in the UK. It’s one of the most important documents in such times, alongside the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD). In this article, we will talk about how to get a Death Certificate in the UK, as well as provide general information about the admin that needs to be done following a death.
We’d also just like to say that, whatever has brought you to this page, we recognise the complexity of the situation that you could be in at the moment. If you find that you currently need to arrange a funeral for someone who has recently died, or that you may soon need to confront that reality, then you are in the right place. Aura is a top-rated provider of funeral services in the UK, and we can offer our direct cremation services at the point of need, as well as for those looking for a prepaid funeral plan for the future.
The Death Certificate is an important part of registering a death in the UK. Once the MCCD has been completed and verified by the Medical Examiner, they’ll send it to the Registrar’s office local to the person who has died. Then you’ll be able to set up a meeting with the Registrar in order to register the death officially. Following this meeting, you will be provided with the Death Certificate.
The simplest way to think about it is that, on the one hand, the MCCD is the certificate relating to medical matters; it certifies the immediate and underlying causes of death of the person who has died, and is signed off by a Medical Examiner. On the other hand is the Death Certificate, which is more focused on the legal process. It allows the family to process the estate of the person who has died, apply for probate, close their bank accounts, and make claims under over-50s life insurance policies. The cause of death from the MCCD also appears on the Death Certificate.
Anyone, whether they are the next of kin, the executor of the will, or just an interested party, can apply to obtain the Death Certificate of anyone else in the UK. It can be done upon request from the General Register Office of the UK government, as Death Certificates are considered to be matters of public record, so need to be publicly accessible. In Scotland, requests should be made to the National Records of Scotland.
With that being said, the death needs to have been officially registered before copies of the certificate can be requested. Only someone who was there when the person died; an administrator at the hospital (if the person died there); or someone arranging the person’s funeral can actually register the death.
As the Death Certificate is vital for matters relating to the finances of the person who has died, it might be that their bank, insurance company, stock broker, or any other financial institution could request a copy of it for proof that they’ve died.
In order to obtain a death certificate in the UK, there are a number of steps that need to be completed.
Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD)
The first thing required before you can get a Death Certificate is for the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) to be sent to the registrar by the doctor or Medical Examiner. When someone dies, the attending physician (the doctor who was attending the person shortly before they died), will formally list a ‘Cause of Death’. Their conclusion will be based on a range of factors, from their medical history, to the immediate circumstances of their death, to the results of clinical analysis.
The ‘Cause of Death’ arrived at by the attending physician now needs to be confirmed by the Medical Examiner following some changes to the death-registration process in England and Wales. If the Medical Examiner is unable to conclude decisively what the ‘Cause of Death’ was, whether because the circumstances are unusual or unexpected, the matter will be referred to the Coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland), who may open an investigation. All of this can delay the death-registration process.
Death Certificate
Assuming the Medical Examiner agrees with the ‘Cause of Death’ supplied by the attending physician, or amends it in favour of their own one, they will send the MCCD to the local Registrar’s office for you, which will allow you to arrange an appointment with them. At that appointment, you will be given the Death Certificate.
Once both certificates have been issued, the death will need to be formally registered with the local authority. In England and Wales, this needs to be done within five days of the death having occurred, and within eight days in Scotland. Once this has been done, the Registrar will give you a ‘Green Form’, or what’s officially called a ‘Certificate of Burial or Cremation’. It certifies that the funeral can legally go ahead.
Anyone can request a copy of a Death Certificate, once the death has been formally registered, and this can be done online by filling in a Death Certificate Application Form on the government website. Requests can also be made through the post, or even in person at the local Registrar’s office, or at the General Register Office.
Whilst Death Certificates are available publically, there is a fee-per-copy which starts at £12.50. The price will rise to £16.00 if you don’t apply with a GRO (General Register Office) index reference number. If you need the certificate in the short-term, you can pay £38.50 for the government’s priority service, which should help it to arrive more quickly.
If other family members want their own copy of a relative’s death certificate at the point of registration of the death, this can be facilitated, but, again, there is a per-copy-charge.
No, you do not need a Death Certificate in order to register a death. Rather, the Death Certificate is given to you by the Registrar once you have registered the death. In order to do this, the Medical Examiner will have already needed to send the MCCD to the Registrar, detailing the Cause of Death of the person who has died. In cases where the death has been referred to a coroner, they will send an ‘Interim Death Certificate’ instead, which will allow you to register the death as usual, possibly followed by other paperwork.
In England and Wales, according to Bereavement Advice, writing on when and where to register a death, it needs to be registered in person, in the local region where the person has died. If it’s impossible to attend at the local Registrar’s office, then it should be possible to attend at a different office. However, this may delay the ultimate issuance of the Death Certificate, as it will then need to be physically sent between different Registrar’s offices.
In Scotland, the law changed in September 2022, making it possible to register a death at any Registrar’s office in the country, and even to do so remotely, whether online or over the telephone.
Once the MCCD has been sent to the Registrar’s office, and you’ve met with them to discuss the death, then you will typically receive the Death Certificate. You can’t receive the Green Form without the Death Certificate, which is what allows the funeral to proceed. And the Death Certificate itself is essential for concluding the financial matters of the person who has died, and maybe even for paying for the funeral, if the family is relying on their estate for funding.
Copies can be requested at any time from the GRO or the local Registrar’s office, even many years after the person has died, as long as their death has already been officially registered.
In some cases, the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) may become involved in the death certification process, which could lead to some delays. They may also issue specific paperwork.
Typically, the coroner will become involved in the death-certification process when the death was sudden, suspicious, unexpected or unclear. It might be that the coroner needs to order a post-mortem examination in order to determine the cause of death, which is to say a pathological, surgical exploration of the body of the person who has died. In some cases, even a post-mortem examination doesn’t establish the cause of death, at which point the coroner may decide to launch an ‘inquest’. A coroner’s inquest is a fact-finding exercise which aims to establish:
Depending on whether the coroner thinks a post-mortem examination and an inquest are necessary, there could be delays to the official death-registration process.
The coroner can issue what’s called an ‘Interim Death Certificate’ (or ‘Certificate of Fact of Death’) whilst they work to establish the cause of death. This temporary document can be used in the legal process in the same way that a full Death Certificate could, such as closing the bank accounts of the person who has died, or applying for probate. It can also allow the Registrar to issue a Green Form and let the funeral of the person who has died go ahead. This is a work-around designed to resolve delays that would otherwise result in the funeral-arranging process should it otherwise be required to wait for the coroner to establish the cause of death.
In situations where a death has been referred to the coroner, but they have decided that no investigation is necessary, they will send a ‘Form 100-A’ to the referring doctor, telling them that it is okay to medically certify the death, and then the process will proceed as normal.
In cases where the coroner had previously issued an ‘Interim Cause of Death’, but have now concluded their investigation, whether with or without an inquest, they will then issue a final Cause of Death certificate to the Registrar, which will allow the registration of the death to be completed.
Naturally, the coroner’s involvement can lead to delays in the process of registering a death. In September 2024, the law in England and Wales changed to make it less likely that a death would need to be referred to the coroner, allowing the ‘Medical Examiner’ to handle parts of the process with more autonomy. But, if the death is referred to the coroner, depending on the circumstances and the success of any post-mortem investigation, there could be delays to the final registration of the death.
We hope that this article has helped you feel more comfortable about how to get a Death Certificate in the UK and about the legal requirements of funerals in general. If you’re currently organising a funeral for a loved one, we want you to feel as comfortable and as well informed as can be. If you’d like Aura’s help with funeral arrangements, whether in the here and now or as part of a prepaid funeral plan for the future, our Angel team is always ready to take your call. If you have any questions on funeral documents, or about direct cremation in general, they’re here to support as much as is needed.
