Registering a death

Following the introduction of the statutory Medical Examiner service on 9 September 2024, all deaths in England and Wales that do not involve the Coroner must be referred to the Medical Examiner for independent scrutiny before registration.

The Medical Examiner will contact the designated next of kin to:

• Discuss the cause of death
• Address any concerns
• Forward the necessary paperwork to the relevant Register Office

Once we receive the paperwork from the Medical Examiner or Coroner, we will contact the next of kin to offer an appointment to register the death. Please note: Deaths should be registered within 5 days of us receiving the required documents.

If you haven’t heard from us within 2 days of the Medical Examiner confirming they’ve sent the paperwork, please email us with the following details:

• Full name of the deceased
• Date and place of death
• Your name, relationship to the deceased, and contact number

The emergency legislation allowing telephone registration expired on 24 March 2022. If you cannot travel to Cardiff:

• You may attend your local Register Office to complete a declaration
• The registrar will forward the information to us in Cardiff
• Any certificates must be ordered directly from us and will be posted once registration is complete

Please note after the registration has been completed and you have signed the document, any applications to correct the entry will incur a charge.

A charge of £83.00 will be made to consider the request at your local registration office, or alternatively, if the request for a correction must be made to the General Register Office, then a fee of £99.00 will apply.

Payment of this fee does not guarantee the correction will be granted and fees paid will not be refunded if the request is denied.

We also offer the Tell Us Once service. If you would like to utilise this during your appointment, we kindly ask you to bring the following where appropriate:

• National Insurance number for the deceased and any surviving spouse/civil partner
• Deceased’s British Passport (Valid or expired)
• Deceased’s Driving Licence
• Deceased’s Blue Badge

If you have been issued with an interim certificate, we are unable to register the death before the coroner concludes their investigations, but if you would like to use the Tell us Once service please email us a photograph/scan of the interim certificate and we can produce a unique reference number for you to be able to use the service.

You can find out more about arranging a funeral in Cardiff on the Cardiff Bereavement Services website.