A death should be registered within 5 days unless the Coroner is investigating the circumstances of the death (in these cases there is a different process to obtain a death certificate after an inquest)
If you can’t book an appointment to register within 5 days of the death, please book as soon as you can.
Who should register the death
All deaths that occurred in the City of Manchester must be registered in person at Manchester Register Office.
If there's no relative of the deceased to register the death, it can be done by the person that is making the funeral arrangements, or someone who was present at the time of the death, or the occupier, matron or owner of a nursing home, or the hospital administrator of the premises where the death occurred.
The information that’s needed
During the registration the registrar will ask you questions about the person that's died, so it's a good idea to bring any documents you can with you. These would be things like their passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate or driving licence. You don't legally have to bring these documents to register the death but it's helpful to make sure that spellings, dates and so on are all recorded accurately. It costs £75 or £90 to make a correction to the registration at a later date and can be a time-consuming process.
Unless the Coroner has held a post mortem or inquest, the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) is issued by a doctor to the register office and is required for a death to be registered. The MCCD should be emailed directly from a doctor or surgery to us: we cannot accept an email scan of the MCCD from anybody other than the doctor or surgery that issued it.
If you are given a paper copy of the MCCD by the doctor you should bring it to your appointment.
Booking an appointment
You should only book an appointment once the doctor or hospital have confirmed that they have emailed the MCCD to us, or the Coroners Office has confirmed that the relevant paperwork has been issued to us. Without this essential documentation we will not be able to register the death.
If you need help to do this, your funeral director can do it for you.
Information about arrangements if you need to organise a burial within 24 hours of death
Registering a Stillbirth
If you need to register a stillbirth please email us at registeroffice@manchester.gov.uk with your name, hone number and the date and place of stillbirth. We’ll contact you as soon as possible.
Tell Us Once
When you register a death with us, the registrar will issue you with a Tell Us Once reference number. It’s an optional free service that lets you report a death to most government organisations and council departments in one go. Once you’ve completed the death registration the registrar will issue you with a Tell Us Once reference, which will give you access to this service.
Find out more about Tell Us Once
Registering a Death by Declaration
If you live in Manchester and need to register the death of a person that died somewhere else in England or Wales you can register the death ‘by declaration’ at Manchester Register Office. The details you provide will be sent on to the relevant register office, and you will need to contact them at a later stage to get the death certificate. If you register a death by declaration at Manchester Register Office no record of the death will be held here, and we will not be able to issue you with any of the paperwork you need to arrange the funeral, or with any death certificates. To ask for an appointment to register a death by declaration email us at registeroffice@manchester.gov.uk