Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there have been incidences where his Department has instructed hospital doctors and general practitioners to record the cause of death on death certificates as died with covid-19 or suspected of having covid-19 in cases where tests have not been carried out to confirm the actual cause of those deaths.

Medical practitioners are required, whether in an emergency or non-emergency period, to certify causes of death to the best of their knowledge and belief.

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. This guidance confirms that COVID-19 is an acceptable direct or underlying cause of death for the purposes of completing the MCCD.