There will be so many thoughts and feelings that will be flying around in your head when someone close to you passes away, that sometimes the most obvious practicalities are forgotten. In this blog I want to try and help guide you on one of the very first steps that must be taken, and that is legally registering their death.
Did you know it’s actually illegal
not to register a death? To find out more you can read this article by Jack Colwill on
Mirror.co.uk.
In England you must register the death within 5 days of the passing, and this is inclusive of weekends and bank holidays. It is a criminal offence not to register a death within this time frame, unless the death has been reported to the coroner in which case there are some extra rules and regulations that you can find
here. Registration of a death must be done by contacting a register office. contact details of which can be found using this search tool on
GOV.UK.
Once the death is registered you will receive a certificate for burial or cremation, which you will need to give to the funeral director before the funeral can take place.
The responsibility for registering the death falls to one of the following people:
In Scotland the process is exactly the same as it is in England and Wales, the only real difference is that you get 8 days to register the death instead of 5. All other details about who can register the death or where you do it are the same as those given above.
Hopefully there are very few instances on which you will need this information, but, on those sad occasions when you do, we hope this guide will come in useful.
