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I have received the following questions from a Local Authority in response to the earlier news article published on Covid-19 and my appearence on a webinar hosted by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The questios relate to changes to the law during the pandemic, the answers I supplied are below:

Questions:

1.       Your website refers to new legislation that was being considered which allowed changes to the way in which deaths are registered. Has this legislation all been finalised now and will these changes remain in place or are they only temporary due to the current situation? i.e funeral directors being able to register deaths, registrars allowing electronic copies of documents etc?

2.       Cremation vs burial. I seem to recall you mentioning in the webinar that we don’t have to take the deceased persons wishes into consideration any more. Is that correct and where can I find reference to this?

3.       We have a section in our procedure relating to inheritance of money. I think it’s probably out of date as there have been various changes since it was written including same sex marriages, people living together but not married. Where can I find a link to inheritance rules to put into the procedure.

4.       Are local authority officers still conducting searches of properties? If not, what happens if we arrange a funeral and then a relative comes on the scene?

Answers:

1: In respect of timelines, I believe that the changes are in place and will last all the time the pandemic legislation is in force. Registrations can be done on the telephone and they are definitely accepting electronic documents. The following was issued by the GRO:
https://www.publichealthfunerals.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GRO-Circular-5-2020.pdf
Registration of Death – Guidance for medical professionals was issued as follows:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-notes-for-completing-a-medical-certificate-of-cause-of-death and guidance to Funeral Directors has been revised here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funeral-directors-guidance-on-cremation-regulations-and-forms
Information for the public can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

2: Cremation vs Burial – This is covered in Sec 5 (P23) of the guidance below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-death-management

3: Inheritance rules – as far as I am aware there have been no recent changes to this, one of the better guides I have found is from Citizens Advice:https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

4: Property Searches – It’s a mixed bag, some authorities are, some arent. You’ll need to be aware of social distancing guidelines etc. I would say that if you have sufficient PPE and that the property has been untouched for over 72 hours you should be able to safely carry out a search of the property.[/restrict]