To make an appointment to register a death you will need to have had confirmation from the doctor or hospital that the relevant paperwork has been completed, and forwarded electronically to the register office at somersetregistrations@somerset.gov.uk
If you have not heard from the doctor, please contact them in the first instance.
When you have received confirmation from the doctor, please call us on 01823 282251 to book an appointment.
When someone dies, the death must be registered within five days.
If you’re registering a death from outside the district, information will be sent to the office in the area where the person died. That district will then issue the certificates. This is called registering by declaration and you should allow more time for the burial or cremation documents to reach you.
To register a death, the Registration Service will need the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death which will be forwarded directly to us from the hospital or doctor’s surgery. The hospital or surgery should advise you when the paperwork has been completed.
If a death has been reported to the coroner we’ll need documents from them before we can register the death.
To register the death, we’ll need to ask you:
If the deceased person was married or widowed we’ll need to know the full name and last occupation of their spouse. We’ll also need to know the date of birth of their surviving spouse.
Once the registration is complete we’ll produce the form for the burial or cremation, unless the coroner has already issued one. This will be forwarded directly to the cemetery or crematorium, and can also be sent to your funeral director if you would like.
You can buy as many copies of the death certificate as you need. The cost of a death certificate is £11.
Please note that if you request a correction to a registration, it will be subject to a non-refundable fee. We cannot guarantee the request will be approved.
The fee payable will be £75, but may increase to £90 if the correction needs to be authorised by the General Register Office. It’s therefore very important that the document is carefully checked before you register.
Most deaths are registered by a relative of the deceased.
If the death occurred in a house, hospital or elderly people home and there are no relatives available, we would normally allow one of the following people to register the death:
If the death occurred somewhere else and there are no relatives available, we would normally accept one of the following people to register the death:
To register a death please call or email us.
The information provided about births, deaths and marriage is for guidance only and is not a full expression of the law.