Community directory

Reporting a death to the Coroner

There are a number of circumstances when a death is reported to a Coroner.

They include :-

• when no doctor has treated the deceased during his or her last illness or not attended upon the deceased in the last 14 days before death
• when the death occurred during an operation, or before full recovery from anaesthetic
• when a patient has died within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital (by local Coroner’s request),
• when the death was possibly due to an industrial disease
• when the death was caused by violence or any other unnatural cause for example a road traffic accident or another type of accident
• when the death occurred in prison or in police custody
• when a doctor is unable to give a proper certificate of a cause of death
• when the circumstances of the death are suspicious

Whenever a death has been reported to the Coroner the Registrar must wait for the Coroner to finish his or her enquiries before the death can be registered.

Who reports a death to the Coroner?

Deaths are usually reported by the police, or by a doctor called to a death if it is sudden or unexpected. In other cases a Registrar of deaths may make the report and must do so in the circumstances outlined above.