Industrial Diseases: Death Certificates

(asked on 6th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of relaxing legislation on the completion of death certificates on the number of referrals of potential cases of death by industrial disease to coroners.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 14th May 2020

In response to the provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 in relation to death certification, the General Register Office/Home Office and the Office for National Statistics published revised guidance to medical practitioners completing medical certificates cause of death (MCCD) for a period of emergency. Medical practitioners are expected to state the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief. This guidance confirms that COVID-19 is an acceptable direct or underlying cause of death for the purposes of completing the MCCD. The notification of death regulations 2019, 3(1)(ix) includes the requirement of notification to the coroner if the registered medical practitioner suspects that that the person’s death was due to an injury or disease attributable to any employment held by the person during the person’s lifetime.

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