Deaths

You can register a death if you are:

• a relative
• a person present at the death
• the person in charge of making funeral arrangements
• the occupier of the house or public building that the death occurred in (eg hospital, hospice or care home)
• the funeral director arranging the funeral with the agreement of the deceased’s family (under the provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2020)

There is no requirement for relatives to collect the medical certificate of cause of death from the hospital, care home or GP.

A scan of the certificate should be sent to the registrar directly at registrars@hackney.gov.uk, (if the coroner has carried out a post-mortem they will scan and send the relevant paperwork to us).

The green certificate for burial or cremation will be emailed directly to the funeral director, crematorium or cemetery office if you know who you are using.

You will need to tell the registrar the following information about the deceased:

• their full name at the time of death
• any previous names used (including their maiden name if applicable)
• their date and place of birth
• their occupation
• their last address
• their marital status
• the full name, date of birth and occupation of a surviving or late spouse or civil partner (if applicable)

It would be helpful if you could bring some of the deceased’s documents with you to your appointment – for example, passport, marriage certificate, proof of address. However, please do not worry if you can’t bring these documents.

Please call the Hackney Contact Centre on 020 8356 3355 if you have any issues when booking a death registration appointment online.

Alternatively, please email us at registrars@hackney.gov.uk

If it hasn’t already been reported, the registrar will report a death when:

• there’s no doctor who can issue a medical certificate of cause of death
• a doctor did not see the deceased within 28 days before death or after they died
• the cause of death is unknown
• the cause of death is believed to be unnatural or suspicious
• the death occurred during an operation or before recovery from an anaesthetic
• the death is due to industrial disease or industrial poisoning

If a death has been reported to the coroner, we can’t go ahead with the registration until the coroner has decided whether any further investigation into the death is necessary.

In most cases no further investigation is necessary and the registration can be completed straight away.

If a death has been reported to the coroner, he or she may issue a certificate for burial or cremation where possible.

To help us find your entry, please make sure that you provide all of the information we ask for.

If for any reason we cannot produce your requested certificate, we will process a partial refund instead.

We will retain £5 of the amount paid as a search and administration fee, and process a refund for the remaining amount back on to the original payment card.

Please allow up to 10 working days for the amount to be credited back to your account.

This is a free service that allows you to tell multiple local and central government agencies about a death, at the same time.

Once the death has been registered, a registrar can provide you with a reference number that you will need in order to access the service.

Some of the government agencies that the tell us once service notifies include:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – to deal with tax and cancel benefits
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – to cancel benefits, eg income support
• Passport Office – to cancel a passport
• Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) – to cancel a driving licence
• your local council – to cancel housing benefit, council tax benefit, a blue badge, inform council housing services and remove the person from the electoral register
• public sector or armed forces pension schemes – to stop pension payments

Find out more about Tell us once or watch the government’s video about Tell us once.

Life Ledger is a free and easy-to-use service that allows families to inform a variety of businesses and organisations connected to the deceased. 

Using the service can be time saving and removes the need to have the same difficult conversation over and over as the notifications are all sent from one place.

Notifications about the death can be sent to banks, credit card companies, energy suppliers, phone and broadband providers and social media accounts to name a few.

Please visit the Life Ledger website to use this service or to find out more information about the services that they provide.

The death notification service is a free service which allows you to notify multiple banks and building societies of a person’s death, all at once.

Their aim is to make the process as quick and easy as possible for the bereaved.

View the financial institutions that are involved in this service.

The National Bereavement Service is a not-for-profit organisation that provides free practical advice, emotional support and legal assistance to families going through a bereavement.

They can offer assistance with funeral costs and probate as well as other legal and financial matters which many find difficult to deal with after losing a loved one.

The free service can be accessed by phone, email or live webchat.

Depending on the error there is a non-refundable correction consideration fee of either £75 or £90.

This is a statutory fee set by the General Register Office. It is not set by us.

The non-refundable correction consideration fee is separate from the cost of new certificates. New certificates, after we’ve made the correction, cost £11 each. You must order a new certificate online after we’ve made the amendment.

We do £75 correction applications at our office. It can take at least 10 working days to process and amend your application. Avoid contacting us for an update until after 10 working days have passed.

You must send £90 correction applications to the General Register Office as we cannot approve them. It can take the General Register Office at least 25 working days to assess your application. Avoid contacting us for an update until after 25 working days have passed.

We make corrections to entries in a very specific way. We always display the original information as it was first given. However, we write a marginal note against the registration. It explains what the correct information should be and the date we made the correction.

Depending on when the entry was originally registered, the marginal note can appear at the bottom of the page or at the side of the page.

Any certificates issued from that point on will include the note in the margin.

See application form to correct a death registration (PDF 141kb)

See guidance notes for the application process (PDF 112kb)

You must bring your completed correction form and the original documents showing the correct information with you . We will check through your application and documents. We take the required fee from you at our office.

You will have many options to choose for the funeral and in some cases the deceased may have already planned their own funeral in advance.

To assist you further see:

• a list of some of Hackney’s local funeral directors
• a list nearby cemeteries and crematoria

If a person has no relatives who are willing or able to arrange a funeral, the council will arrange a cremation or burial. This is called a Public Health Funeral.

There are many specialist bereavement support organisations who can help you in your grief.

If a person who is taken ill or dies has no relatives able or willing to make the necessary arrangements, we will protect their property and assets. Landlords also have certain responsibilities.

You may need to apply for probate.