Registering Death

How a death is registered

To avoid delay, the death must be registered by the Registrar of Deaths for the borough in which the death occurred.
You can find the address for the registrar on the Internet under REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, DEATHS & MARRIAGES, or from the doctor, local council, post office, police station or through the Mosque.

If in Brent, you will need to contact Brent Council’s registration service where you should go to the Registrar as soon as possible if you need the Certificate for Burial or the Certificate of Registration of Stillbirth.

Please note that the Registrar is not normally available during weekends and bank holidays but can usually be contacted at certain times to make an emergency appointment to register a death and to obtain the paperwork to allow a burial to proceed.

The death cannot be registered without first obtaining a medical certificate showing the cause of death, which is issued either by the hospital or the certifying doctor.

What happens at the register office?

When you go to the Registrar you should take all these:

• The Medical Certificate of the cause of the death given by the doctor or the Pink Form (form 100) given to you by the Coroner
• The deceased’s medical card, if possible
• The deceased’s birth and marriage certificates, if available or other ID docs

The information you should provide the Registrar are:

• The date and place of death.
• The deceased’s last (usual) address.
• The deceased’s first names and surname (and the maiden name where appropriate).
• The deceased’s date and place of birth (town and country if born in the UK, and country if born abroad).
• The deceased’s occupation and the name and occupation of their spouse.
Whether the deceased was getting a pension or allowance from public funds.
If the deceased was married, the date of birth of the surviving widow or widower.

What the Registrar will give you:


The Registrar who registers the death will give you the Certificate for Burial (known as the Green Form), unless the Coroner has already given you an Order for Burial (form 101).

For a stillbirth, you will instead be given a Certificate of Registration of Stillbirth. If a post mortem is required and the death is confirmed to be from natural causes, the coroner will issue a Coroners Certificate directly to the registrar. To make sure this has been received please get in touch with the register office.

The above forms (only one of them is required, not both) give permission for the body to be buried. No burial can take place at the cemetery without presenting one of these forms to cemetery staff. 

In addition, certain other paperwork including the Death Certificate is obtained at the same time as the death is registered.