We know that this is a difficult time for many people and we hope this guide is a help to you. What follows is a practical guide to the matters that need attention when somebody dies. However, you may well also wish to speak to one of our priests, by using our Contacts page. Just complete the form and we'll get back to you quickly.

WHERE DID THE DEATH OCCUR?

IN HOSPITAL:

Most deaths now take place in a hospital or nursing home. If your relative dies in hospital, staff will contact you, lay out the body and arrange for it to be taken to the hospital mortuary. You will then be asked to arrange for the body to be collected by funeral directors, who will normally take it to their chapel of rest. At the same time, you will be asked to collect the person's personal possessions.

Before a death can be formally registered, a doctor will need to issue a medical certificate giving the cause of death. In hospital, this is usually done by a hospital doctor, who will hand the certificate to you in a sealed envelope addressed to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. You will also be given a notice, explaining how to register the death. There is no charge for either of these. If the person has not been seen by a hospital doctor, their GP may be able to issue a certificate instead.

A hospital may ask you for permission to carry out a post-mortem examination to learn more about the cause of death. You do not have to agree to this.

In some cases, a doctor may not be able to issue a medical certificate of the cause of death. There may be a number of reasons for this. If the doctor isn't able to issue a medical certificate, they will refer the death to the coroner. The coroner may order a post mortem examination. You do not have the right to object to a post-mortem ordered by the coroner, but you should tell the coroner if you have religious or other strong objections.

You can find out more information about when a death is reported to a coroner on the GOV.UK website at: www.gov.uk.

Where cremation is to take place, a second doctor will be needed to sign a certificate that the body has been examined. There will be a charge for this.

AT HOME:.

When someone dies at home, their GP should be called as soon as possible. The GP will normally visit the house and, if the death was expected, should be able to issue a certificate giving the cause of death. If the person did not have a GP or you do not know the name of the GP, an ambulance should be called instead.

A doctor is not allowed to issue a certificate if they are unsure about the cause of death. When this happens the death must be reported to a coroner and the body will be taken to a hospital mortuary, where a post mortem may need to take place.

DEATHS ABROAD:

If a death takes place abroad it must be registered according to the law of that country. The death should also be reported to the British Consul who may be able to arrange for the death to be registered in the UK as well.

Returning a body to the UK is expensive but the cost may be covered by any travel insurance taken out by the person. If the death was on a package holiday the tour operator should be able to help with arrangements.

When a body is returned to the UK, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the district where the funeral is to take place must be told and will need to issue a certificate before burial can take place. If cremation is to take place the Home Office also needs to give permission.

If the death was not due to natural causes the coroner for the district will also need to be told and an inquest may need to take place. In Northern Ireland a coroner can also arrange a post mortem or an inquest if the family requests it.

DONATION OF ORGANS:

The law in England about organ donation changed in April 2020. It is now a matter of "presumed consent". Relatives will still be involved in any discussion, and if the deceased person expressed a wish not to donate organs that may be respected. Most organ donations come from people who have died while on a ventilator in a hospital intensive care unit. For more information about organ donation and transplantation, contact:

NHS Organ Donor Register

NHS Blood and Transplant

Organ Donation and Transplantation Directorate

Fox Den Road

Stoke Gifford

Bristol

BS34 8RR

Organ Donor Line: 0300 123 2323 (24 hours a day, every day)

E-mail: enquiries@nhsbt.nhs.uk

Website: www.organdonation.nhs.uk

If you wish to leave your body for medical education or research, you should tell your relatives and get a consent form from your nearest medical school. You should keep a copy of the consent form with your will and tell your family, close friends and GP that you wish to donate your body. Go the Human Tissue Authority website to find out your local medical school atwww.hta.gov.uk.

You can get further information about body donation from the Human Tissue Authority website atwww.hta.gov.uk.

If the body is accepted (and many bodies are not suitable), the medical school will arrange for eventual cremation or burial.

REGISTERING THE DEATH:

The registration of the death is the formal record of the death. It is done by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and you will find the address of the nearest register office on your local authority's website or by phoning the local authority. . 

When someone dies at home, the death should be registered at the register office for the district where they lived. If the death took place in hospital or in a nursing home it must be registered at the register office for the district in which the hospital or home is situated. In England and Wales, if it is convenient, you can go to a different office to register the death and the details will be passed on to the correct office. You should check the opening hours of the office you wish to go to. Some offices have an appointments system.

A death should be registered within five days but registration can be delayed for another nine days if the registrar is told that a medical certificate has been issued. If the death has been reported to the coroner you cannot register it until the coroner's investigations are finished.

It is a criminal offence not to register a death.

The death should be registered by one of the following (in order of priority):-

a relative who was present at the death

a relative present during the person's last illness

a relative living in the district where the death took place

anyone else present at the death

an owner or occupier of the building where the death took place and who was aware of the death

the person arranging the funeral (but not the funeral director).

You cannot delegate responsibility for registering the death to anyone else.

You must take with you the medical certificate of death, since the death cannot be registered until the registrar has seen this. If possible, you should also take the person's NHS medical card and birth and marriage certificates. The registrar will want from you the following information:-

date and place of death

the full name of the person (including maiden name) and their last address

the person's date and place of birth

the person's occupation and, in the case of a woman who was married or widowed, full name and occupation of her husband

if the person was still married, the date of birth of their husband or wife

whether the person was receiving a pension or other social security benefits.

FORMS:

When you have registered the death, the registrar will give you a green certificate (for which there is no charge) to give to the funeral director. This allows either burial or cremation to go ahead. Occasionally a registrar may be able to issue a certificate for burial only (but never cremation) where no one has yet been able to register the death.

The registrar will also give you a form to send to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (In Northern Ireland the Social Security Agency). This allows them to deal with the person's pension and other benefits.

DEATH CERTIFICATE:

The death certificate is a copy of the entry made by the registrar in the death register. This certificate is needed to deal with money or property left by the person who has died, including dealing with the will. You may need several copies of the certificate, for which there will be a charge.

You can get copies of a death certificate from the General Register Office. Its contact details are on the GOV.UK website at www.gov.uk.

In Northern Ireland details of District Registrars can be found on nidirect’s website atwww.nidirect.gov.uk.

CORONER:

A coroner is a doctor or lawyer appointed by a local authority to investigate certain deaths. In Northern Ireland, the Lord Chancellor appoints a coroner. A coroner is completely independent of the authority and has a separate office and staff. You will find the address of your local coroner's office in the telephone directory.

A coroner can investigate a death if the body is in their district, even though the death took place somewhere else, for example, abroad.

A death must always be reported to a coroner in the following situations:-

the person's doctor had not seen them in the 14 days before they died or immediately afterwards (28 days in Northern Ireland)

a doctor had not looked after, seen or treated the person during their last illness (in other words, death was sudden)

the cause of death is unknown or uncertain

the death was violent or unnatural (for example, suicide, accident or drug or alcohol overdose)

the death was in any way suspicious

the death took place during surgery or recovery from an anaesthetic

the death took place in prison or police custody

the death was caused by an industrial disease.

Anyone who is unhappy about the cause of a death can inform a coroner about it, but in most cases a death will be reported to a coroner by a doctor or the police.

In some cases the coroner will need to order a post-mortem, in which case the body will be taken to hospital for this to be carried out. You do not have the right to object to a post-mortem ordered by the coroner, but should tell the coroner if you have religious or other strong objections. In cases where a death is reported to a coroner because the person had not seen a doctor in the previous 14 days (28 in Northern Ireland) the coroner will consult with the person's GP and will usually not need to order a post-mortem.

For more information about post-mortems and your rights to know what happens with organs and tissue, go to the Human Tissue Authority website at www.hta.gov.uk.

A death cannot be registered until the coroner's investigations are complete and a certificate has been issued allowing registration to take place. This means that the funeral will usually also be delayed. Where a post-mortem has taken place the coroner must give permission for cremation.

INQUESTS:

An inquest is a legal inquiry into a death. It is held in public (sometimes with a jury) by a coroner in cases where the death was violent or unnatural or took place in prison or police custody or where the cause of death is still uncertain after a post-mortem or, in Northern Ireland, where a child has died in care. Only a coroner can order an inquest and relatives have no right to insist on one.

An inquest may take place into a death which took place abroad if the body has been returned to the UK.

Relatives may attend an inquest and ask questions of witnesses. In England and Wales legal aid may be available for legal advice on inquests. In Northern Ireland legal aid is not available for inquests but some pre-inquest advice may be available under the green form scheme. In England and Wales, an organisation called INQUEST may sometimes be able to arrange legal representation, either free or for a reduced charge. The address of INQUEST is:-

89-93 Fonthill Road

London N4 3JH

Tel: 020 7263 1111

Fax: 020 7561 0799

E-mail: inquest@inquest.org.uk

Website: www.inquest.org.uk

The inquest should provide more information about how and why the death took place and whether anyone else was responsible. In some cases, a criminal prosecution may later take place.

Once the inquest has been held the death can be registered and the funeral can take place (although in some cases the coroner may allow the funeral to go ahead before the inquest is over).

FUNERALS:

A funeral can take place any time after death. Most funerals are arranged by the nearest relatives for example, a spouse or civil partner. However, if there are no relatives, anyone close to the person can arrange the funeral instead.

The person may have left instructions (in their will or somewhere else) about the type of funeral they wanted and/or whether they wanted to be buried or cremated. There is no legal obligation for relatives to follow these instructions. In some cases, relatives may want burial or cremation to take place abroad. The rules about this are very complex and the help of a specialist funeral director will be needed. Permission from a coroner is always needed before a body can be sent abroad.

If there are no relatives or friends to arrange a funeral, in England and Wales, the local authority or health authority will arrange a simple funeral. In Northern Ireland, the local Health and Social Services board can do this. The public authority that arranges the funeral will then try to recover the cost from any money left by the person who died.

FUNERAL DIRECTORS:

Most funerals are arranged through a funeral director (who used to be known as an undertaker). It is important to find a funeral director who belongs to one of the professional associations, such as the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) or the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF), since these associations have codes of practice and complaints procedures. Some local authorities also run their own funeral services by arrangement with a local firm of funeral directors. If a funeral director is not a member of a professional association or a complaint is not dealt with satisfactorily, you may need to take legal action against the funeral director.

When you use the services of a funeral director, the law gives you certain rights as a consumer. For more information about your consumer rights when you use a service, see Funeral services.

National Association of Funeral Directors

618 Warwick Road

Solihull

W. Midlands B91 1AA

Tel: 0845 230 1343

Fax: 0121 711 1351

E-mail: info@nafd.org.uk

Website: www.nafd.org.uk

Members of the National Association of Funeral Directors must comply with its Code of Practice. The Association has an internal conciliation service, and an independently-run arbitration scheme.

The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors

3 Bullfields

Sawbridgeworth

Herts

CM21 9DB

Tel: 0845 230 6777

Fax: 01279 726300

Email: info@saif.org.uk

Website: www.saif.org.uk

The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors has a code of practice for its members.

FUNERAL COSTS:

The person who arranges the funeral is responsible for paying the final bill and it is important to know where the money for the funeral will come from. The person who died may have taken out a pre-paid funeral plan, paying for their funeral in advance. It is important to check their personal papers to see if they had a plan. If they did, this should cover the whole cost of the funeral.

If there is no funeral plan, the cost of the funeral will normally be met out of any money left by the person who had died and, where money has been left, the funeral bill should be paid before any other bills or debts. Even if the person's bank account has been frozen following the death it may be possible to have funds released from a building society or national savings account on showing the death certificate. The person may also have had an insurance policy which will cover funeral costs. In other cases, relatives may need to borrow money until the person's money and property are sorted out. Some funeral directors will allow payment to be delayed until this has happened.

Some people do not leave enough money to pay for even a simple funeral. If this happens, the person arranging the funeral will have to pay for it, although other relatives or friends may be willing to contribute. There is no general death grant, but if you are in this situation and you receive a means-tested social security benefit (such as income support) you may be able to get a payment from the social fund (known as a funeral payment) to cover the cost of a simple funeral. Even where a funeral payment is made, it may not cover the full cost of the funeral and you may still have to pay the difference.

For more information on the social fund, see Help for people on a low income - The Social Fund.

If the person who died was receiving a war disablement pension, the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency will help with the cost of a simple funeral. The address of the Agency is:-

Norcross

Thornton Cleveleys

Lancashire

FY5 3WP

Helpline: 0808 1914 2 18 (Monday to Thursday from 7:30am to 6:30pm: Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm)

E-mail: veterans.help@spva.gsi.gov.uk

Website: www.veterans-uk.info/pensions/pensions.html

The funeral director should always give a written estimate of the cost of the funeral, but the final bill may be higher. The bill will cover the costs of burial or cremation, the fees for the funeral service and the professional services of the funeral director. There will also be charges for extras, such as flowers, cars, service sheets and newspaper notices.

Other costs

Anyone who receives a means-tested benefit (such as income support) may be able to receive help from the Department for Work and Pension's or in Northern Ireland the Social Security Agency's social fund through a budgeting loan towards the cost of travelling to the funeral of a close relative.

If the person who is paying for the funeral is receiving a means-tested benefit it may be possible to receive help from the social fund through a funeral payment towards the cost of travelling to the funeral.

For more information on the social fund, see Help for people on a low income - The Social Fund.

Arranging a funeral without a funeral director

You can arrange a funeral without the help of a funeral director. If you wish to do this, contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of your local authority for advice and guidance. You can also get help and information from The Natural Death Centre.

BURIAL OR CREMATION:

A burial can take place in a churchyard, a local authority cemetery or a private cemetery. Burials can also take place on private land, or in a woodland site, although in Northern Ireland this will have to be approved by the authority responsible for the site.

Anyone living within the parish has the right to be buried in the parish churchyard, if there is space, or in any adjoining burial ground. Some churches may allow others to be buried there as well (for example, ex-parishioners or those with family graves). There is no right to be buried in any particular part of a churchyard or burial ground.

Burials inside a church are not allowed in urban areas and are very rarely allowed elsewhere.

Most cemeteries are owned by local authorities or private companies and are non-denominational although some have space dedicated to particular religious groups. In the case of a local authority cemetery, anyone living in the authority's area has the right to burial in the cemetery. Others may also be allowed burial, but for a higher burial fee.

In most cemeteries there are various categories of graves. Some graves do not give exclusive rights to burial while others give the right of exclusive burial for a set period of time. It is important to check the papers of the person who has died to find out if they have already purchased a grave space in a churchyard, cemetery or woodland burial ground. Although there is no law preventing burials on private land (including a garden) anyone wishing to do this should contact their local authority, who may issue a certificate confirming that the burial is lawful.

Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management

The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management produces a Charter for the Bereaved. This includes a wide range of information about burial and cremation, including information about burial on private land, for example, woodlands, farmland or gardens. It also provides information on funerals without funeral directors, and environmental issues. You can contact the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management at:

City of London Cemetery

Aldersbrook Road

Manor Park

London

E12 5DQ

Tel: 020 8989 4661

Fax: 020 8989 6112

Website: www.iccm-uk.com

The Natural Death Centre

The Natural Death Centre can give advice on environmentally friendly burials, as well as on inexpensive funerals that do not need the services of a funeral director. Contact details are:

Natural Death Centre

In The Hill House

Watley Lane

Twyford

Winchester

SO21 1QX

Tel: 01962 712690

E-mail: rosie@naturaldeath.org.uk

Website: www.naturaldeath.org.uk

Most crematoria are run by local authorities. There is only one crematoria in Northern Ireland at Roselawn and it is run by Belfast City Council. A number of forms are needed before cremation can take place, including a certificate from a doctor, counter-signed by another doctor and an application form completed by a relative. These forms are available from the funeral director. The costs of cremation are usually considerably less than the costs of a burial. In Northern Ireland, you can ask for a priest, minister or clergyman to conduct a service at the crematorium. The crematorium can provide you with contact details if necessary.

The person arranging the service may choose any form of service. If you do not want any form of religious ceremony, the British Humanist Association can give advice on a non-religious (secular) service. The Association's address is:-

1 Gower Street

London

WC1E 6HD

Tel: 020 7079 3580

Fax: 020 7079 3588

Email: info@humanism.org.uk

Website: www.humanism.org.uk

If you do not want a service of any kind the funeral director can arrange for burial or cremation without any form of service.

If, for any reason, there is no body, a memorial service can be arranged instead of a funeral service.

Disposal of ashes

Ashes may be scattered or buried at the crematorium, either by crematorium staff or by relatives and friends. Ashes can also be buried in a churchyard or cemetery, often with a short service.

Ashes can generally be scattered anywhere, but if you wish to scatter ashes on private land you should get consent from the landowner.

Although UK law allows ashes to be taken abroad, many countries have strict rules on the importation of ashes and it is important to check before travelling.