Death Registration in United Kingdom

History

The registration of burials in England goes back to the time of Thomas Cromwell, who in 1538 instituted the keeping of parish registers. Statutory measures were taken from time to time to ensure the preservation of registers of burials, but it was not until 1836 (the Births and Deaths Registration Act) that the registration of deaths became a national concern. Other acts dealing with death registration were subsequently passed, and the whole law for England consolidated by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874. By that act, the registration of every death and the cause of the death is compulsory.

When a person dies in a house information of the death and the particulars required to be registered must be given within five days of the death to the registrar to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief by one of the following persons:

• The nearest relative of the deceased present at the death, or in attendance during the last illness of the deceased. If they fail, then
• some other relative of the deceased in the same sub-district (registrar’s) as the deceased. In default of relatives,
• some person present at the death, or the occupier of the house in which, to his knowledge, the death took place. If all the above fail,
• some inmate of the house, or the person causing the body of the deceased to be buried.

The person giving the information must sign the register. Similarly, also, information must be given concerning death where the deceased dies not in a house.

Where written notice of the death, accompanied by a medical certificate of the cause of death, is sent to the registrar, information must nevertheless be given and the register signed within fourteen days after the death by the person giving the notice or some other person as required by the act. Failure to give information of death, or to comply with the registrar’s requisitions, entails a penalty not exceeding forty shillings, and making false statements or certificates, or forging or falsifying them, is punishable either summarily within six months, or on indictment within three years of the offence. Before burial takes place the clergyman or other person conducting the funeral or religious service must have the registrar’s certificate that the death of the deceased person has been duly registered, or else a coroner’s order or warrant.

Failing the certificate, the clergyman cannot refuse to bury, but he must forthwith give notice in writing to the registrar. Failure to do so within seven days involves a penalty not exceeding ten pounds. Children must not be registered as still-born without a medical certificate or a signed declaration from some one who would have been required, if the child had been born alive, to give information concerning the birth, that the child was still-born and that no medical man was present at the birth, or a coroner’s order.

The registration of deaths at sea is regulated by the act of 1874 together with the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. See further Birth and Burial and Burial Acts. Registers of death are, in law, evidence of the fact of death, and the entry, or a certified copy of it, will be sufficient evidence without a certificate of burial, although it is desirable that it should also be produced.(1)

Resources

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia Britannica (1911)

See Also

Further Reading