Due to emergency arrangements introduced to support social distancing, it will not be possible to register a death in person until further notice.
Deaths will be registered by phone. Please do not call the Registry Office us to make an appointment to register the death.
Hospitals and doctors surgeries will send the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) direct to the registrar’s office but will need to ask you for the name and contact details of the person who will be registering the death. It will also be helpful if you can provide details of the funeral director.
Please wait for the registrar to call you. The registrar will take details of the death and will pass on the green certificate for you.
Unfortunately the registrar will not be able to issue a death certificate at the time of the registration. The death certificate and any copies will be issued at a later date. Certificates cost £11 each.
The Tell Us Once service is also temporarily suspended.
If you already have a MCCD from the hospital or doctor, please post or deliver this to the Registry Office covering the area in which the death occurred.
Before posting please ensure you add the following details, clearly, on the MCCD envelope:
- name of the person who will register the death
- a contact number (and email address) for the person who will be registering the death
- the name of the funeral director
Once the Registrar has received the MCCD he/she will call you to complete the death registration.
Please allow 2 to 3 working days for the registrar to call you.
The emergency arrangements also make changes affecting who can register a death, which significantly now include the funeral director. Here is an extract from the enabling provisions:
Provision – To enable a funeral director, who is working on behalf of the family, to act as informant for the death registration.
- The provision for a funeral director to act as a qualified informant is in addition to the normal list of qualified informants.
- It is possible that family members, or others eligible to act as informant, may be ill or otherwise prevented from registering the death.
- A funeral director can only act as informant with the agreement of the deceased’s family.
- A funeral director can act as informant, on numerous registrations, and can supply the information for the registration by telephone.
- It is envisaged that a funeral director may register several deaths in one call, speeding up the registration process.
Funeral directors are not obliged to act as an informant.
- Following registration, the necessary certificates for burial or cremation may be sent electronically to the relevant authority. This will remove the need for the delivery of the paperwork, by hand, to the funeral director