Please contact one of our register offices to arrange an appointment to register a death or stillbirth.
The registration must take place within 5 days of the death.
Tell Us Once
Tell Us Once is an optional and free service. You can report a death to many council and government organisations all at once, to save you time.
When you attend to register the death, the registrar can provide you with a unique reference number which you can then use when you contact the Tell Us Once service.
If you can't contact the Tell Us Once service yourself, you could ask a family member, friend or your funeral director to help you.
What you need to register the death
A death must be registered in the district in which it occurs. However, if a death occurred in another district, a declaration can be attested at any register office and forwarded on to the district where the death occurred.
The following information is required at the death registration appointment:
- full name and surname of the deceased
- date and place of birth
- occupation (even if retired)
- usual address
- in the case of a married person, the full name and date of birth of their spouse, and their occupation
For deaths that occur in Derbyshire, the doctor in attendance will complete the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death and send it to the Medical Examiner.
The Medical Examiner will review the information before contacting you to discuss the cause of death and to answer any questions you might have. The Medical Examiner will then send the paperwork to the Registration Service who will contact the next of kin to arrange an appointment to register the death and this appointment must take place within 5 days.
If you haven't been contacted by the Registration Service 8 days after the date of the death, please contact us and we'll assist you.
However, if the death has been referred to the Coroner, the process may take a little longer but the Coroner’s Office will complete the paperwork and contact you. The Coroner will then provide the necessary paperwork to the Registration Service, who will then contact the next of kin to arrange an appointment to register the death.
If you have the deceased's medical card, please bring that with you when you attend at the register office. If you can't find it, the registrar will be able to continue the registration without the medical card.
It can be helpful to bring birth and marriage certificates relating to the deceased with you, but it's not essential.
If the deceased was in receipt of a pension from public funds, for example the civil service or HM Forces, please bring details with you.
Certificates
At the registration appointment, the registrar is able to issue:
- a free-of-charge certificate of burial or cremation - this is a green form that the funeral director will need to proceed with the funeral arrangements
- 'Certified copies of a Death Entry', generally referred to as death certificates, which cost £12.50