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Documentation required | Funeral directors | Help with funeral expenses from the DSS | Professional Associations | Registration | When a death occurs

If a death happens at home then the deceased's doctor should be notified. This will sometimes not be possible if the death has happened outwith normal working hours and at such times an "on-call" doctor will attend to verify that death has occurred. The attending doctor will usually notify the deceased's doctor of this in order for the latter to issue a medical cause of death certificate. Once the death certificate has been issued then registration of the death can take place.

If, for any reason, the attending doctor is unwilling to recommend a death certificate be issued, then a police doctor will be called and a decision made to either release the deceased into the care of a funeral director or arrangements will be made by the police to remove the remains to a police mortuary. In both circumstances, a police report will be written and sent to the procurator fiscal. (Under certain circumstances the police will be in attendance initially and may themselves call the police doctor.) In the case of the remains being with the funeral director then, if the procurator fiscal has no desire to investigate the circumstances of the death beyond the information contained in the police report, the medical cause of death certificate will normally be issued by either the deceased's doctor or the police station involved. When the remains are in the police mortuary, then the medical cause of death certificate will be released from either the mortuary or the police station after either a 'post-mortem examination' or 'view and grant' has been carried out and the procurator fiscal has decided to release the remains. The term view and grant refers to the investigation of the circumstances of a death without carrying out a post-mortem examination. Once the death certificate has been issued then registration of the death can take place.

It is quite acceptable that upon the death being verified by a doctor, and ensuring that permission is given by either the doctor (or the police if they are in attendance) the family can contact ourselves to take the deceased into our care.

If a death occurs in hospital, then a death certificate will be issued from the ward unless there are circumstances that may not allow this. The doctor may request permission of the family to carry out a hospital post-mortem examination or indeed there may be a reason to involve the procurator fiscal regarding the death. A family are within their rights to refuse permission for a hospital post-mortem examination, however, should the procurator fiscal require a post-mortem examination be done then it is mandatory that this proceeds.