After death paperwork
Today, I got to combine my passions. Service Design and Death.
I was having a conversation with researchers at Snook, one of the country’s leading service design agencies, birthed right here in Glasgow a decade ago by Sarah and Lauren and now part of an international company with its home in Japan.
Today, we were talking about the paper trail that accompanies a death and it reminds me, it’s worth sharing with readers as a helpful bit of life info to have in your back pocket, ‘in the event’.
Most of us will only organise one of two funerals in life so here’s what to expect.
When someone dies and you’re in charge, you have 5 days to register the death - 8 in Scotland.
It’s quite straightforward. There are only a couple bits of paper involved:
1) Medical Certificate of Cause of Death or MCCD for short
When someone dies, a doctor must certify the cause of death. If the person dies in hospital or a care home, the staff team help. If they die at home, you call your own doctor. The doctor determines the cause of death and signs the MCCD. They’ll ask you where the burial or cremation is to take place so they know which Registrar they should send the MCCD to. They’ll email you and the funeral director a copy too.
2) Death Certificate or Certificate of Registration of Death to give it its full name
Once you have the MCCD, you phone or email the Registrar to register the death. These days you can have a remote appointment. Your Funeral Director can also do this for you. The Registrar will create the Death Certificate and send a copy to you. You should get a few copies too for sending to banks, lawyers and others who might need them. They cost £10 each.
3) Green Form or Certificate for Burial or Cremation
You usually don’t need to think about this - it will go on behind the scenes.
The Registrar will give the Funeral Director the ‘Green Form’ and this travels with the person who has died. Part B goes to the cemetery or crematorium and part C goes back to the Registrar.
If it’s a cremation, you’ll be asked to sign an electronic version of Form 1 - Application for Cremation. The Green Form, Form 1 and Form 4 - the medical certificate - all go the Medical Referee at the crematorium and they complete Form 10 as the authority to cremate.
The Registrar and your funeral director will keep you right.
Use the Government Tell Us Once (TUO) system to share your info so you don’t have to keep repeating the sometimes distressing news that someone has died.
