Government Website: Registering a Death

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Lords Chamber

Question

15:11

Asked by

[Baroness Brinton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to update the Government website page on registering a death, specifically the requirement to do so within five days.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

The five-day timeframe in England and Wales to register a death starts once the medical examiner has sent the medical certificate of cause of death to the registrar. While the guidance provided on GOV.UK is up to date, the General Register Office for England and Wales will continue to work with relevant departments to ensure that this information best supports the bereaved. Civil registration is a devolved matter in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, recently, it took nine days to register my sister’s death, instead of the five stated on the website. The medical examiner’s office and the registrar both told me that, every day, bereaved families are confused and distressed, as they believe that they are breaking the law because they think it is death that triggers the five-day clock and not the medical examiner signing the papers off. The noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, told me that her medical examiner was taking up to a month to do this and that there were further delays in registering the death. Will the Government update the website, adding the certifying hospital doctor—the first step that the public encounter—ahead of the medical examiner’s role, to clarify the timeline? Will the Government review the five-day rule in the light of delays in some ME and registrar services?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I offer my condolences to the noble Baroness on her loss. She has a point. I have discussed this with officials and we are looking at how we can improve the website and make some changes to it. That will be done, and I will write to the noble Baroness within a month, when it has been completed.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, has the Minister seen the article in last week’s Times:

“Death certificates take twice as long after reforms choke system”,


with only one in six being delivered within a fortnight, adding to the costs for the funeral director and to the distress of relatives? What action are the Government taking to deal with that delay?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

There are two points here. The median figure that we have assessed for the issues that the noble Lord has raised is nine days. The published data does not break down the journey between the medical certificate of death and the registration of death. From the Home Office’s perspective, the registration process is more or less on target at the five-day period. Where there is a delay on occasions, it is between death occurring and the medical examiner’s certificate being issued. I will be drawing that issue to the attention of my noble friend Lady Merron, as it is a Department of Health matter. Again, the Government are committed to trying to resolve and improve performance on this.

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, on 3 April last year, from the Dispatch Box in this Chamber, my noble friend Lady Merron said:

“We are taking steps to reduce the time to register a death”.—[Official Report, 3/4/25; col. 361.]


Can my noble friend the Minister tell us what progress is being made?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

As I said, nine days is the median. I confess to the House that death certificates are not my specialist subject, but I will do my best to investigate whether there are any delays and will write to my noble friend.

[Lord Ravensdale (CB)]

My Lords, sudden unexplained death in childhood is a tragedy that affects around 40 children per year in the UK, but there are cases where, in the event of a child’s death, parents are waiting more than a year to find out what happened. As if the pain of losing the child was not bad enough, they then have to wait more than a year to get closure. This is all due to a shortage of paediatric pathologists in the system. Can the Minister say what plans the Government have to address this situation?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Self-evidently that level of delay is not acceptable and should not exist. The Home Office’s responsibility in this area is for the period after the medical examiner has issued the certificate and the death certificate has been given to the registrar. That is the five-day period which we are broadly maintaining. The issues which the noble Lord has raised about paediatric support and assessments are for the Department of Health. I note what he has said and will investigate the issue and write to him. That is not an area that I am overly familiar with because it is not within my direct competence.

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, certain minority faith groups, particularly the Jewish and Muslim communities, have to bury the deceased in their families as soon as possible. In Sheffield, we worked up a system where we have registrars on call to issue paperwork at weekends, but the bottleneck comes from waiting for the medical examiner to deal with it. Can the Minister speak to the group of people from Sheffield and elsewhere who are struggling with this issue and see how, across departments, we can look at opening up opportunities to bury the deceased quickly? The grave is ready and the council is ready to issue the burial certificate, but the medical examiner is causing the trouble for many families. This is not just a Sheffield issue; it is up and down the country.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am sympathetic to what the noble Lord has said. My colleague and noble friend Lady Merron has said that the Department of Health, particularly in an English context, is working sympathetically with the communities that the noble Lord has mentioned. I will reflect on what he has said. It is a strange situation whereby the Home Office has responsibility for some of the issues that the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, has raised—and I am seeking to address those and will change the system—but the issues that the noble Lord is raising are with a different department. However, my noble friend Lady Merron has heard these points and we will look at the question sympathetically.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, following exactly on from that question, is not the most sensible approach to look at those areas where coroners are operating efficiently and at speed, to learn from those best practices, and then to extend it to the rest of the country? It is a straightforward business proposition. Is that not that what the Government should be doing?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The answer to that question is yes. The bit that the Home Office is responsible for has a five-day target, which is being met. There are challenges in the medical examination aspect for a range of reasons, which are not just administrative but related to how, when, where and in what circumstances people have died. There may be issues that we can look at. My noble friend makes some important points and after Question Time I will discuss with my noble friend Lady Merron how best we can address those.

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, it is worth remembering that medical examiners were introduced following the Harold Shipman disaster and they are there to provide public safeguards. But there is evidence that medical examiners are being somewhat risk-averse and that deaths which have occurred quite naturally are being held up. Perhaps in his discussions with my noble friend, it is time for the Minister to take an initial look at what medical examiners are doing to see whether there can be some changes to speed up the death certification process.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The issue is under constant review. Work continues towards the introduction of electronic registration of deaths in England and Wales to minimise the burden on bereaved family members at a difficult time. As my noble friend has said, this system was introduced for perfectly legitimate reasons to improve safeguards. We need to make sure it works well. I have tried, in response to the Question by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, to make improvements in the areas I am directly responsible for, and I will reflect with my noble friend on other issues.

[Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Con)]

My Lords, perhaps I could bring to the House my recent experience. My father passed away on 21 December, which is, dare I say, a challenging time of year, given that the nation stops work for about two weeks. I was not able to register the death until 8 January, but, considering the time of year, I have to say that the medical examiner’s office was working throughout the Christmas period and I was able to get an appointment in reasonable time. I ask the Minister to pass on my thanks for a system that worked for me at a difficult time of year. Everyone behaved well, professionally and sensitively, and I offer thanks for how it is working.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful for that, and I will certainly pass it on to the appropriate authorities. For information, my own mother died a long time ago, on Christmas Day, and we had a very difficult time dealing with that, given the holiday period. The service that was provided, in that case in the Liverpool region, was exemplary, and it is important that we recognise good service when it happens. We are trying to improve the situation, as I have said to the noble Baroness. I will reflect on the points that the noble Lord has made.

[Lord Pannick (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister reflect on the fact that there are serious delays not just in the registration of deaths but in the operation of coroner’s inquests? The outgoing chair of the Justice Committee at the time of the last election, Sir Bob Neill, said the committee had been told that the coroner service was “chronically under-resourced and underfunded” and that this was leading to totally unacceptable delays. Could the Minister or the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, add this to the shopping list of matters they will look at?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I feel as if I am answering for three departments today: the Department of Health, the Home Office, and now the Ministry of Justice has been thrown in. I will reflect on and share with my noble friend Lord Timpson the points that the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, has made. I cannot answer him today but I will certainly make sure it is looked at.