Kent County Council –
our commitment to you
North West Kent
03000 410703 | [email protected]
Child Death Helpline
0800 282986 | www.childdeathhelpline.org.uk
If you have any concerns about the removal
of the deceased please raise these with the
funeral director in the first instance.
Central & South East Kent
03000 410804 | [email protected]
Coroners Contracted Funeral Directors
If you have any concerns about the conduct
of any person working in or on behalf of the
coroner’s office please contact:
Head of Coroner Services
Kent County Council
The Archbishops Palace
Mill Street
Maidstone
ME15 6YE
[email protected]
The funeral director attending on behalf of the
coroner will inform you which coroner’s office
is dealing with the deceased.
The coroners’ offices are open Monday to
Friday usually between 8am and 4pm. You
do not need to telephone as the office will
contact you, however the numbers are
provided below for your information.
Mid Kent & Medway coroner area
Further information and Useful
Contacts
Ministry of Justice publishes
Coroner Investigations: a short guide and Guide to
Coroner Services.
Both guides are available from https://www.gov.
uk/government/publications/guide-to-coronerservices-and-coroner-investigations-a-shortguide
Department for Work & Pensions publishes:
What to do after a death www.gov.uk/after-adeath
Bereavement Payment and Allowance www.gov.
uk/bereavement-allowance
Bereavement Advice Service
0800 6349494 | www.bereavementadvice.org
Birds Family Funeral Directors
Doves Funeral Directors
Dignity Funerals Ltd
North West Kent coroner area
Doves Funeral Directors
Stephen P Gay
North East Kent coroner area
Dignity Funerals Ltd
Central & South East Kent coroner area
Dignity Funerals Ltd
The contracted funeral director will leave you
a business card with their contact details
If you are unsure which funeral director
attended, please ask the coroner’s office.
Organ Donation
0300 1232323 | www.organdonation.nhs.uk
Mid Kent & Medway
03000 410502 | [email protected]
Tissue Donation
0800 432 0559 | www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/
tissuedonation/
North East Kent
03000 410603 | [email protected]
Cruse Bereavement Care
0844 4779400 | www.cruse.org.uk
This leaflet is available in alternative
formats and can be explained in a range
of languages.
Please call 03000 333 5430 for details.
Where a Death
is referred to
the Coroner:
what happens next?
The role of the coroner
The four Kent coroners’ are independent
judicial office holders, each appointed by
Kent County Council as a senior coroner for
one of the four coroner areas. Coroners must
make enquiries of any death that is reported
to them and investigate the death if it appears
that:
• the cause of death is unknown, or
• the death was violent or unnatural, or
• the person died in prison, police custody,
or other type of state detention
Moving the deceased to a hospital
mortuary
Kent County Council (KCC) and Kent Police
support the coroners in Kent to discharge
their statutory duties. Arrangements have
been made by the police on behalf of the
coroner to remove the deceased from
the place of death to the mortuary at the
hospital. The police and or the funeral
director will inform you which hospital.
Family entitled to make
arrangements with a funeral
director of their choice
The funeral director contracted by the
coroner is not permitted to promote their
services in any way. The family is entitled to
make arrangements with any funeral director.
The details for the coroners’ contracted
funeral director are shown on the reverse of the
leaflet for your information.
What happens next?
The deceased is now under the coroner’s
jurisdiction while preliminary enquiries and if
necessary a post-mortem is conducted. The
coroner’s office will contact the family as soon
as practicable, usually during the next working
day, once the officer has been able to speak to
the general practitioner (GP). Please note that
the requirement to register the death within 5
working days does not apply at this time.
Post-mortem examinations
After speaking to the GP and in cases where
the cause of the death is unknown, but
believed to be due to natural disease, the
coroner will need to establish a medical cause
of death through a post-mortem examination
which is carried out by a pathologist acting on
behalf of the coroner.
If the cause of death is found to be due to
natural causes the coroner’s officer will inform
you of the cause of death and notify the
registrar of deaths and explain how you make
an appointment to register the death.
Coroners Investigations
In some cases the post-mortem does not
reveal a cause of death and it may be necessary
to conduct further tests and the coroner
will begin an investigation while these are
carried out.
Registering the death where no
inquest is held
When the cause of death is unnatural, due
to trauma or violence or the person died
in prison, police custody or other state
detention, for example where a Deprivation
of Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS) Authorisation
is in place, then the coroner must conduct
an investigation with an inquest.
Once the coroner’s office has advised
you of the cause of death they will send
the information on a certificate to the
registrar of deaths. You will need to make an
appointment to register the death as follows:
deaths in Kent, except those in the Medway
area please telephone 03000 415151 or visit
register a death at www.kent.gov.uk
Deaths in the Medway area please
telephone 01634 338998 or e-mail
Where an investigation is taking place you
will not be able to register the death, the
coroner’s office will provide you with copies
of the coroner’s certificate of the fact of
death for you to use until the investigation
is complete after which time you will be
advised about registration of the death.
Please note that you cannot use the
coroner’s certificates to register the death.
The coroner’s office will explain what
happens next when they phone to give you
the results of the post-mortem examination.
Releasing the body to the funeral
director chosen by the family
In all cases, the deceased person will be
released as soon as possible after a postmortem, so when you speak to the coroner’s
officer tell them who your funeral director
is and whether it is a burial or cremation.
The coroner’s office will advise your funeral
director when they can collect the deceased
from the hospital.
Registering the death following an
inquest
After the conclusion of the final inquest
hearing the coroner will send a certificate to
the registrar of deaths and arrange for the
death to be registered. You will be advised
by the coroner’s office how to apply for copy
certificates.
Certificates for a death in Kent, except in
the Medway area please apply to the KCC
certificate centre 03000 412247 or visit
register a death at www.kent.gov.uk
For a death in the Medway area, the certificate
centre will contact you when the certificate is
available