Registering a death: step by step

The deadline: 5 days in England and Wales, 8 in Scotland

A death must be registered within 5 days in England and Wales, or within 8 days in Scotland, and those are calendar days, so weekends and bank holidays count. The clock does not start at the moment of death: it runs from when you are told that the medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death, per GOV.UK's guide to what to do after a death. If a coroner is investigating, registration waits until they release the paperwork, and the deadline waits with it. If you think you will miss the deadline for any other reason, telephone the register office and say so; that is all the rules ask of you.

Registering is the gateway to everything else. No registration means no green form, so no funeral; no death certificate, so no access to bank accounts, insurance or probate. This page covers the registration step itself and is general information rather than legal or financial advice; for what comes after, our probate pillar guide carries the full picture.

Step 1: wait for the medical examiner (or coroner)

Since 9 September 2024, every death in England and Wales gets an independent review before it can be registered, under the death certification reforms. Either a medical examiner, a senior doctor independent of the case, scrutinises the cause of death proposed by the doctor who attended the patient, or a coroner investigates. There are no exceptions. The medical examiner's office will contact the family, explain the confirmed cause of death and answer questions (speaking with them is optional), and then send the new-style medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) directly to the registrar. You no longer collect a paper certificate from the GP surgery and carry it in yourself. When the certificate has gone across, you are told you can book the registration appointment, and the 5-day period begins.

Step 2: the right person books the appointment

Per GOV.UK's register a death service, a relative should register the death. If no relative can do it, the registrar will accept:

• someone who was present at the death,
• a hospital administrator, where the death happened in hospital, or
• the person arranging the funeral (the individual instructing the funeral director, not the funeral director themselves).

In England and Wales you register at the office for the district where the death occurred. Registering elsewhere is possible but slower, because your declaration is posted to the correct district before certificates can be issued. In Scotland, any registration office in the country can handle it, which is one reason the deadline there is 8 days rather than 5.

Step 3: bring the details, not just documents

The registrar's questions are about the person, so the information matters more than the paperwork. You will be asked for their full name at death and any previous names, date and place of birth, last address, occupation, the name, date of birth and occupation of a surviving or late spouse or civil partner, and whether they were receiving a State Pension or benefits. Documents such as a birth certificate, passport, driving licence, marriage or civil partnership certificate and a proof of address help the registrar get the record right, so take what you can find, but do not delay the appointment hunting for a missing birth certificate. An error spotted later can be corrected, though it is far easier to get it right in the room.

Step 4: leave with the three things that unlock everything

The appointment usually takes about half an hour, and you come away with:

1. The certificate for burial or cremation, the green form. This goes to your funeral director (or the crematorium or burial authority). The funeral cannot go ahead without it.
2. Death certificates. These are certified copies of the entry in the register, at £12.50 each in England and Wales, whether bought at the appointment or ordered later from the General Register Office (later orders take around 4 days, or £38.50 for next-day priority). Buy several at the appointment: banks, insurers, pension schemes and the probate service often each want to see an original, and a typical estate uses somewhere between three and six copies.
3. A Tell Us Once reference number. The Tell Us Once service lets you report the death to most of government in one go: HMRC, DWP, the Passport Office, DVLA, the local council and public sector pension schemes. It covers England, Wales and Scotland (not Northern Ireland) and the reference must be used within 28 days, so do it while the folder of paperwork is still on the kitchen table.

What happens next

With the death registered, the practical sequence is funeral, then estate. Tell Us Once handles government, but banks, utilities and insurers still need contacting directly, and the next dedicated job is usually gathering paperwork for probate, where the death certificate is the first document on the list; our guide to whether you need a death certificate to apply for probate picks up exactly there, and our Tell Us Once explainer covers the notification service in full. To see how registration fits into the months ahead, the probate timeline estimator maps each stage against realistic dates, and how long probate takes explains the stages themselves.

Registration is designed to be done by ordinary families without help, and almost always is. Where a specialist earns their place is in the estate work that follows, particularly if the estate involves property, inheritance tax or a coroner's delay compressing the timetable. If that is where you are heading, a probate specialist can take the administration off your hands while you deal with everything registration cannot schedule.