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Registering a Death and Reporting a Death to the Registrar
Before a body can be buried or cremated a registrar’s certificate or coroner’s order must be obtained. The failure of the registration, cremation certification and coronial investigation systems to detect the crimes of Dr Harold Shipman (a General Practitioner who was convicted in relation to the deaths of 15 patients) prompted Parliament to set up the Shipman Inquiry, which published its report in 2005. The Shipman Inquiry found that families of a deceased person had little involvement in the processes of certification and investigation of a death. It also found that where a death occurs at home, the relatives, friends or carers of the deceased often do not know what is expected of them as their legal duty.
The Registrar of Births and Deaths must be notified whenever a person dies in England or Wales (The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953). This notification enables registration of the death to take place. Details of the Registrar can be found in the local telephone directory.
The following persons (‘qualified informants’) have a duty to notify the Registrar about the death of a person who died at home or in another household: a relative present at the death or during the deceased’s last illness, any other relative living in the district where the death occurred, anyone present at the death, the occupier or inmate of the house if he or she knew about the death or the person responsible for disposing of the body. If a person dies at home or in another house there is a duty to attend the Registrar personally within five days of the death and to give the particulars that are required for registration. If a written notice of the death is sent to the Registrar within five days together with confirmation that a doctor has certified the cause of death, the period in which the informant must personally attend the Registrar is extended to 14 days.
If the deceased did not die in a house the particulars for registration must be reported within five days of the death by the ‘qualified informant’ who, in this case, is any relative with knowledge of any of the particulars for registration, any person present at the death, any person finding or taking charge of the body and any person responsible for disposing of the body, which can include any surviving spouse, next of kin and surviving civil partners (see above: Possession of a Dead Body).
The birth and death of an infant who is stillborn must be registered within 42 days of the death. The following may register a stillbirth; the mother, father (if the child would have been legitimate if born alive), the occupier of the premises where the stillbirth occurred or a person present at the stillbirth or who found the infant. If the infant died before 24 weeks of pregnancy, the loss of the foetus is considered a miscarriage and there is no need to register the death.
If a medical practitioner attended the deceased during his/her last illness before the death that medical practitioner must sign a medical certificate informing the Registrar of his or her belief as to the cause of death. The medical practitioner is not certifying the fact that a death has occurred, only his or her belief as to the cause of death and there is no specific obligation upon the medical practitioner to examine the body. If there is doubt about the cause of death, the medical practitioner should report the death to the Coroner. Otherwise, the medical certificate is provided to the Registrar in order for the death to be registered. In practice the medical certificate is sent directly to the Registrar or provided to the next of kin to take to the Registrar.
As the onus is on the medical practitioner in these circumstances both to certify the cause of death (if he or she is able) and decide whether there should be further inquiry by the Coroner, a great deal of trust is invested in a single medical practitioner. The Shipman Inquiry highlighted the danger that a doctor who attended the deceased in his or her last illness could falsely certify the cause of death, in order to avoid a report to the Coroner and an official enquiry into the death. This could occur not only in the extreme circumstances investigated by the Shipman Inquiry, but also in circumstances where a medical practitioner knows that a death may have been caused or contributed to by lack of care or medical error and feels under pressure to certify the cause of death.
Once the medical certificate has been provided to the Registrar and the death has been registered, a copy of the death certificate will be issued upon payment. The Registrar will also issue a certificate of disposal, without which the body cannot be cremated or buried.
