Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of the digitalisation of the death registration process on bereaved people; and whether that process is planned to continue after March 2022.

No formal assessment has been made of the effect of the digitalisation of death registration on bereaved people, as the registration process has not been digitalised.

The current easements for death registration, which facilitate telephone registration if required by the informant and the transmission of documents electronically as part of the death certification process, have been used effectively during the pandemic but will expire in line with the Coronavirus Act 2020.

Separate to this, the General Register Office continues to work with the Department of Health and Social Care on taking forward death certification reforms, which includes consideration of digital services.