Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of weekend and out-of-hours provision for death certification by GPs, Medical Examiner services and registrar services; and what steps he is taking to ensure timely and consistent access for bereaved families.

The process of death certification and registration is complex, and no single department has policy and operational responsibility.

Alignment is needed, including the availability of the medical practitioner who attended the deceased, the medical examiner who scrutinises the proposed cause of death, and finally the Registrar who registers the death. The availability of general practitioners is not controlled by the Department, it is determined by local National Health Service arrangements, and the General Register Office is responsible for the availability of registrars.

The National Medical Examiner provides guidance to medical examiner offices for weekend and public holiday cover and urgent release of a body in circumstances where a bereaved families may have particular reasons to request urgent release of the deceased’s body for burial. The National Medical Examiner annual report for 2025 demonstrates the improving resilience in the system, with medical examiner offices in England reporting they were able to facilitate requests for rapid scrutiny in approximately 90% of requests. The medical examiner system has reduced inappropriate referrals to the coroner and the rate of postmortems, both of which can add significant additional time until burial.

Responsibility for ensuring that medical examiner services respond to local needs sits with trusts. Arrangements should reflect local health priorities and the needs of communities, particularly if there is regular demand for the urgent release of bodies at weekends and public holidays.

The Department is monitoring the introduction and implementation of the death certification reforms and continues work to drive improvement.