At Home
First of all you should contact the deceased’s G.P who will attend your home address to certify that death has taken place, if the G.P can determine the cause of death, he or she will subsequently issue a death certificate. Once the Doctor has attended you can then telephone us and we will at a time convenient for you, attend your home address convey the deceased to our Chapel of Rest.

At Hospital, Nursing Home or Residential Home
A member of nursing staff or the administration team will be able to advise you when and from where to collect the death certificate at the appropriate time.

H.M Coroner
It is in the general interest of the community that a sudden or unexplained death should be investigated, this is the role of the Coroner, he or she will be involved when no Doctor has treated the deceased within 14 days prior to the death, when the death occurred during an operation or when the death may be due to industrial injury or disease.

We will provide a Home Office booklet with full details of the Coroners procedure should you require one or alternatively you can click HERE

THE REGISTRAR
Before attending the Registrar, you will need to obtain a certificate from the Doctor who attended the deceased during the last illness. This doctor may be the normal G.P. or a Hospital Doctor. If the death was in a Hospital or Hospice, you will also be given an internal form that is required by our office.

The death must normally be registered in the area where it occurred, not the area of residence. Some Registrars require an appointment. After registration, the Registrar will give you a GREEN CERTIFICATE, which is also required by our office, and a WHITE CERTIFICATE FOR THE DSS. You can also purchase any certificates required for insurance, probate or the release of funds in the estate.

A Bank or a Building Society will normally copy a certificate and hand the original back immediately, an insurance Company can be requested to return any certificate sent to them. The additional certificates are signed by the Registrar and called a ‘Certified Copy of an entry in the Register’. Usually they are a photocopy, and are loosely referred to as either ‘copies’ or ‘death certificates’. They are the only certificates bearing the cause of death and our office does not normally know that information.

Registrars normally read the ‘list of qualified informants’ as an order of precedence, i.e. they may refuse to accept a registration if there is an available informant higher on the list than the person attending.

Please remember that our office require the GREEN CERTIFICATE and, if applicable, the authority from the hospital or hospice. The special white form is for the DSS and the extra copies are for the Bank, Building Society, Probate, Insurance etc.

QUALIFIED INFORMANTS
~ A relative of the deceased present at the time of death.
~ A relative of the deceased in attendance during the last illness.
~ A relative of the deceased residing in the same locality.
~ Any person present at the time of death.
~ The occupier (e.g. Matron or Officer in Charge of a Nursing Home).
~ The person ‘causing the disposal of the body’, ie. an executor, solicitor or friend making the funeral arrangements in the absence of any relatives.
~ N.B. The Registrar will NOT accept the Funeral Director as the informant.

INFORMATION REQUIRED BY THE REGISTRAR
~ Date and place of death.
~ The deceased’s address.
~ Their full names and, if applicable, a female’s maiden name.
~ Their date and place of birth.
~ Their occupation and the occupation of any spouse.
~ If they were receiving any pension or allowance from public funds.
~ If married, the date of birth of the surviving Widow or Widower.
While a birth certificate or marriage certificate will help to provide the above information, no formal proof is required and the Registrar will accept the word of the informant on any information provided.

CORONER’S ENQUIRIES
There are several reasons why the coroner may need to make enquiries into a death. For example, if the doctor has not been attending (a sudden death), if the person has recently had an operation, been admitted into hospital within 34 hours, or has fallen and fractured a bone within the past 6 months, apart from deaths caused by accident or other unnatural reasons including industrial diseases. Very few cases referred to the coroner involve a formal inquest. The coroner has certain duties to perform and has unlimited powers, which are to protect the public and he is as helpful as possible to those who are bereaved.
The coroner will instruct a pathologist to make an examination. He will require certain statements and may also require a formal identification. When the results of these enquiries are available, he then decides if an inquest is necessary. If the enquiries are closed he will send notice (pink form 100) to the registrar, either by post or our own staff. The registration may then proceed.

IF THE FUNERAL IS TO BE CREMATED,
then the registration can wait until after service as the coroner will give our office a form (cert. E) which replaces the normal medical and registrars certificates.

IF THE FUNERAL IS TO BE INTERMENT,
then the registration must take place before the funeral. The registrar will issue the green certificate, which is required by the cemetery before the interment. Registration cannot however cannot take place before the registrar has the pink form from the coroner.

Should the coroner decide to hold an inquest, the coroner will issue a certificate (CERTIFICATE ‘E’ FOR CREMATION OR AN ‘ORDER FOR BURIAL’ FOR INTERMENT) for the funeral to proceed as soon as he is satisfied that the deceased can be released from his care. While the funeral can proceed, registration must wait until the close of a formal inquest, and the certificates for insurance, probate etc. will not be available until that time.

Coroner’s Enquiries do not normally create a long delay in the funeral arrangements. Due to the need to register before interment, a burial may be delayed a day longer than cremation. If the cause of death is not clear, additional tests may be required which can cause a few days delay. The coroner does, however, have unlimited powers and in extreme circumstances involving suspected murder, the delay can be for weeks or even months. Such delays are extremely rare.

Referrals to the coroner are usually made by a doctor or the police. However, technically, anyone can ask the coroner to commence enquiries and in certain circumstances, a referral may be made by a registrar of crematorium referee if they are not satisfied with the information supplied. An example of such a referral could be reference to certain forms of cancer, which may be caused by industrial illness. Again, we emphasise that such events are extremely rare and where funeral arrangements have been made in consultation with the coroner, the coroner and his staff would do everything possible to allow these arrangements to stand.

PROBATE
Probate can be obtained by personal application to the Probate Court, Astley House, Quay St., Manchester.

The Court will post the necessary forms to you, these can be returned by post, but you will need to attend, at an agreed time, to swear that the papers are correct.

Payment of the funeral account can be made from any funds in a Bank or a Building Society without waiting for a Grant of Probate, merely pass our invoice to the Bank with a request for them to pay.