Register a death

All appointments must be in person. Your appointment will last approximately 30 minutes

Before the appointment

All deaths will be reviewed by a Medical Examiner.

The Medical Examiner Officer will contact you to advise that you can book an appointment to register a death.

You must register the death within 5 days of contact with the Medical Examiner.

If the death occurred in Essex, it should be registered in Essex. This does not include any London Borough, Southend or Thurrock who register deaths separately.

For the appointment

You will need:

• the person’s NHS number
• the person’s birth certificate, if possible
• the name, email and address of your funeral director

The registrar will ask for the person's:

• date and place of death
• full name (and any other names they used or maiden name)
• home address and postcode
• date and place of birth
• last job
• their spouse’s full name and job

Once this is done, the registrar will:

• hand you the ‘green form’. You need to give this to your funeral director. This is needed to plan the burial or cremation
• give you your certificate(s)

Certificates

Make sure you order enough death certificates. You will need these when you are arranging the finances of the person who has died and may need to give them to banks, insurance or pension companies and to the administrator of the will.

Certificates can be purchased when you book your appointment online. You can purchase additional certificates at the appointment if you require more. 

If you use the Tell Us Once service this will reduce the number of certificates you need.

There’s no fee for registering the death.