Registry Offices

Registering A Death & Registry Offices

Once the cause of death has been confirmed by a GP or through a Coroner’s Inquest, you must register the death within five days if you are in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and within eight days if you are in Scotland. To register a death, you will need to contact a registry office – you will have to contact the registry office for the place where the person died, rather than for where they lived.

If you’re unsure where the local registry office is, the government website has a search facility to help aid this process. You can then contact them to establish their opening hours and whether you need to make an appointment in order to register the death.

Registering a death

A relative should register the death, but if this is not possible you can register a death if you:

• were there at the time of death
• are an administrator from the hospital (if the person died in hospital)
• are in charge of making funeral arrangements

The register office will tell you what you need to do next, but remember to take the medical certificate of the cause of death which has been given to you by the doctor or hospital. If you can find birth or marriage certificates, take them too. The registrar will ask you for the person’s maiden name, date and place of birth, last occupation and that of their spouse, the date of birth of any surviving partner and whether they were in receipt of a state pension or other public funds. A funeral director can help with this process.

Once the death has been registered, you will receive:

• a Certificate for Burial or Cremation (the ‘green form’) – this gives permission for burial or an application for cremation
• a Certificate of Registration of Death (form BD8) – you may need to fill this in if the person was getting a State Pension or benefits