Do it online
Related links
Registering deaths
All deaths that take place in the borough, whether in hospital or at home, must be registered within five days and you can register them with:
- our Registration and Nationality Service
- the Bereavement Centre at Central Middlesex Hospital.
Both of these registrars operate by appointment and appointments must be booked in advance.
Please be aware if you do drop in to the service for a death registration, you may not be seen immediately. We will try and see you as quickly as possible but there can be sometimes an hour wait.
Documents you need to register a death
To register a death you need to bring with you the medical certificate. This is issued by the doctor who last treated the deceased and will give the cause of death.
If the death has been passed to the coroner, they will send a document recording the cause of death to us.
Use the Tell Us Once service
You may wish to use the Tell Us Once service where you can notify Brent council and central government offices that the death has occurred.
Who can register a death
A death can only be registered by a relative of the deceased or other person qualified by law. This includes a person present at the death or the administrative officer of a hospital or nursing home. The person instructing the funeral director can also register the death if nobody else is available.
Documents you will be provided with after registration
Once the death has been registered, we provide you with a document which allows a funeral to take place. This needs to be given to the funeral director.
We will also issue a document for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). This clears up any outstanding pension entitlement, if appropriate, and also gives the DWP information on the benefit entitlement of the surviving spouse.
Both these documents are issued free of charge. You can also order copies of full death certificates for a charge.