{"id":1144,"date":"2026-08-03T19:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/?page_id=1144"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:16:11","slug":"bereavement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/bereavement\/","title":{"rendered":"Bereavement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the unfortunate event that a person has passed away, there are three things that must be done in the first few days;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get a medical certificate from your GP or hospital doctor (this is necessary to register the death)<\/li>\n<li>Register the death within 5 days (8 days in Scotland). You will then receive the necessary documents for the funeral.<\/li>\n<li>Make the necessary funeral arrangements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Register the death<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If the death has been reported to the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) they must give permission before registering the death.<\/p>\n<p>You can register the death if you are a relative, a witness to the death, a hospital administrator or the person making the arrangements with the funeral directors.<\/p>\n<p>You can use the \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/register-a-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Register a Death<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 page on the gov.uk website that will guide you through the process. This will also explain the registration process for Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Arrange the funeral<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The funeral can usually only take place after the death is registered. Most people use a funeral director, though you can arrange a funeral yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funeral directors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Choose a funeral director who\u2019s a member of one of the following:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nafd.org.uk\/\">National Association of Funeral Directors<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/nffd.org.uk\/\">National Federation of Funeral Directors<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.saif.org.uk\/members-search\/\">Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These organisations have codes of practice &#8211; they must give you a price list when asked.<\/p>\n<p>Some local councils run their own <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/local.direct.gov.uk\/LDGRedirect\/index.jsp?LGSL=671&amp;LGIL=8&amp;ServiceName=Find%20out%20about%20a%20council%20funeral\">funeral services<\/a><\/strong>, for example for non-religious burials. The <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/humanism.org.uk\/ceremonies\/non-religious-funerals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">British Humanist Association<\/a><\/strong> can also help with non-religious funerals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Arranging the funeral yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of your local council to arrange a funeral yourself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funeral costs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Funeral costs can include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>funeral director fees<\/li>\n<li>things the funeral director pays for on your behalf (called \u2018disbursements\u2019 or \u2018third-party costs\u2019), for example, crematorium or cemetery fees, or a newspaper announcement about the death<\/li>\n<li>local authority burial or cremation fees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Funeral directors may list all these costs in their quotes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the unfortunate event that a person has passed away, there are three things that must be done in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1144","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surgeryweb-scot.org.uk\/40224\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}