How to Register a Death

You must register the death within 5 days of the date of death in England and Wales. The 5-day clock starts from the day after death, so if someone dies on a Monday, the deadline is the following Saturday.

If the Coroner is involved (sudden death, unexplained death, death during surgery, death in custody), the registration will be delayed until the coroner releases the body. This is not within your control, and the 5-day deadline is paused while the coroner investigates. You don't need to worry about being "late."

If you can't register within 5 days for other reasons (you're unwell, you live far away, the registrar has no appointments), call the register office and explain. They can extend the deadline.

If the death happened overseas, you do not register it with a UK register office in the usual way. Our guide on what to do when someone dies abroad explains how registration, repatriation, and UK paperwork work in that situation.

In order of priority:

1. A relative who was present at the death
2. A relative who was in attendance during the last illness
3. A relative who lives in the district where the death occurred
4. Anyone present at the death
5. The occupier of the building where the death occurred (e.g. care home manager)
6. The person arranging the funeral (but not the funeral director themselves)

In practice, it's usually the spouse, partner, or adult child. Only one person needs to attend.

You must register at the register office for the area where the death occurred - not where the person lived.

If they died in hospital in a different town from where they lived, you register in the hospital's town. If this is difficult (you don't drive, the office is far away), you can attend any register office and they'll forward the registration to the correct one - but this adds several days to the process.

Find your local register office: gov.uk/register-offices

Essential

• The medical certificate of cause of death (from the doctor or hospital - you should have this already)

Bring if you have them

Not all are required, but they speed things up:

• The deceased's birth certificate
• Their marriage or civil partnership certificate
• Their NHS number or medical card
• Their driving licence or passport
• Proof of their address
• Details of any benefits or pensions they received
• The name, address, and date of birth of any surviving spouse or civil partner

The appointment lasts about 30 minutes. The registrar will ask you for:

• The deceased's full name (including maiden name if applicable)
• Their date and place of birth
• Their last address
• Their occupation (and their spouse's occupation if married)
• Their date of death and place of death
• Whether they were receiving a state pension or any benefits
• Their NHS number

The registrar will then:

1. Register the death in the official register. You'll be asked to check the entry and sign it.
2. Issue the Certificate for Burial or Cremation (the "green form"). Your funeral director needs this before the funeral can take place.
3. Offer you certified copies of the death certificate. These cost £11 each at the time of registration. Order at least 5. If you order them later, they cost more and take longer.
4. Give you a Tell Us Once reference number (in most areas). This lets you notify multiple government departments in one go.
5. Give you a form for the DWP to report the death for benefits purposes.

This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is: more than you think.

Many organisations will now accept a digital copy or will return the original, but some (especially banks and solicitors) still insist on a certified copy they can keep. At £11 each, it feels steep - but ordering extra now saves the hassle of ordering them later when they cost more and take weeks.

If you're going to be posting these out, Information and Documents keeps a log of which certificate went to which organisation, so you can see what's still out without digging through email.

Once registration is complete, your immediate next steps are:

1. Give the green form to the funeral director so the funeral can proceed.
2. Use Tell Us Once within 28 days (or it expires). See our Tell Us Once guide.
3. Start notifying banks and financial institutions with the death certificates.
4. Store the death certificates safely. You'll be posting them to various organisations over the coming months. Keep a record of who has which certificate.

Most of those notifications repeat the same details over and over. AfterLoss has pre-filled email and phone scripts for the banks, utilities, pensions, and the rest, so you're working from a template instead of starting fresh on every call.

The coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) investigates deaths that are:

• Sudden or unexplained
• Caused by an accident or violence
• Related to an industrial disease
• During or after surgery or anaesthesia
• In police custody or prison
• Where the doctor didn't see the patient in the 28 days before death

If the coroner is involved:

• You cannot register the death until the coroner issues their documentation. This can take days (for a straightforward Post-mortem result) or months (if an Inquest is ordered).
• The coroner may issue an interim death certificate if needed for urgent purposes (e.g., insurance claims, employer notification).
• The funeral may be delayed until the post-mortem is complete. The coroner's office will keep you informed - but don't hesitate to call them if you haven't heard anything.

Full statutory detail, including timeframes and the relevant Acts: the wiki entry on registering a death.

Once you've registered the death, these guides will help with what comes next:

• Tell Us Once: notify multiple government departments in one step
• What to Do When Someone Dies: the full checklist
• Do I Need Probate?: find out whether probate applies to your situation
• Carry the registration details into the rest of the admin with an AfterLoss case: certificates and reference numbers stay alongside everything else.