Registering a death in Rotherham
Where a death has occurred in Rotherham, there is a requirement for the death to be registered within 5 days of the Registrar having received the paperwork from the Medical Examiner or Coroner’s office.
There is a legal requirement to register a death. The deceased’s estate cannot be administered until this has been completed except where the Coroner has issued an interim death certificate.
From 9 September 2024 the Medical Examiner is legally required to independently scrutinise all deaths unless it is one which is being investigated by the Coroner. The relevant paperwork will only be released to the Registrar once this scrutiny has been completed. The Medical Examiner’s office will contact the deceased’s next of kin when they are made aware of the death by the doctor in medical attendance of the deceased and explain their process.
You can only book an appointment when the certifying Medical Practitioner has sent the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death to the Register Office. If the death has been referred to the Coroner, the Register Office must have received the coroner’s paperwork before the registration can proceed. The Coroner’s or Medical Examiner’s office will confirm when they have done this.
Appointments are booked online with the Registrar. The appointment will take place in person at the Register Office at Riverside House on Main Street in Rotherham. Further information on booking an appointment is detailed further down this page.
Only one person can act as informant to a death registration and that person must act as the primary contact with the Register Office in relation to a death. The following list denotes those persons who can act as an informant for a death registration;
- Relative of the deceased (by blood, marriage or civil partnership)
- Partner of the deceased (this is a person who has been in an enduring relationship with the deceased)
- A person present at the death
- A personal representative appointed by the deceased or the deceased’s family
- An occupier of the communal establishment in which the deceased died in (ie hospital, hospice or care home)
- A person causing the burial or cremation of the deceased.
