Funerals: Death Certificate Delays

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord’s observations are correct. As I said, it is so important to be timely and sensitive at a time of bereavement. Governments and Ministers have been working to bring in the system over the last 50 years—in fact, it has been overdue for reform for that long, so I am very glad to have taken this action. Introducing this robust system means working with medical examiners as well as the bereaved, so that we hear from them about what has happened. We also work very closely across government, including with the MoJ and the Home Office. As the noble Lord will know, the medical examiner system is led by NHS England through the office of the National Medical Examiner. I reiterate that delays are not due solely to this introduction; it is very important to unpick this issue. We now have better data and get weekly reports, which is helping greatly.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, at the Commission on Palliative and End-of-Life Care, chaired by Professor Sir Mike Richards, we have heard from medical examiners and the bereaved. It is clear that the ability for the bereaved to speak to a medical examiner and go through things in detail is very supportive. However, the delays in notifying the cause of death and transferring the case notes seem to be from the doctor who had seen the patient. The medical examiner cannot start until both those events have happened, and at that point their work begins. So the increasing digitalisation of the health service and of notifications could speed up these processes. Does the Minister agree that the digitalisation proposals from the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, will bring about those changes and simplify the process?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I agree that those changes—the move from analogue to digital, which will be outlined in the 10-year plan—will indeed help in this area, as well as many others.