Section 2: Practical issues

Registering a death

Registering a death is a legal requirement to tell the government that a person has died. A death that occurs in Scotland must be registered within eight days.

If the Procurator Fiscal decides to investigate the death, they will tell you when and how the death will be registered.

A death can be registered at any registration office in Scotland.

You will need to make an appointment and take some documents with you. The registration office will tell you what documents you need to take. You can find details of a registration office on your local council’s website. Your police contact, a doctor, or funeral director can also help you find a registration office.

After a death has been registered, you will be given the following documents, for free.

• Certificate of Registration of Death (Form 14), to give to a funeral director, if you are using one.
• An abbreviated death certificate, which shows the person’s name, date and place of death.

You can buy a full death certificate for £10. This is a certified extract from the Register of Deaths and you will need this to tell some organisations about the death. It’s a good idea to buy as many copies as you think you will need.

If the person who has died was claiming state pension or other benefits, you can also ask for a Registration or notification of death (Form 3344SI). You won’t need this is if you are using a 'Tell us once' service.

Since the covid pandemic, registrations may be carried out remotely and you may not need to go to the registration office.

A booklet called ‘What to do after a death in Scotland: Practical advice for times of bereavement’, provides more information on registering a death. You can read this booklet at www.brake.org.uk/codes-and-standards.

Information on registering a death is also available from the National Records of Scotland at www.nrscotland.gov.uk.

The ‘Tell Us Once’ service can report a death to other government organisations on your behalf, so you don't have to inform lots of different people. When you register a death, the registration office should tell you whether the service is available in your area and give you a unique reference number that you will need to use the service.

To find out if the Tell Us Once service is available in your area, you can go to your local authority website, speak to the Procurator Fiscal’s office, or go to www.mygov.scot and search for 'Tell Us Once'.

Arranging a burial or cremation

Burial or cremation can take place once the Procurator Fiscal has given permission for the body to be released (see Section 1: What happens now?).

Arrangements for a loved one's body to be buried or cremated, and arrangements for any funeral service or gathering in their memory, are usually overseen by a close relative or group of relatives or friends.

If you are the person making arrangements, or involved in making arrangements, consider any instructions that the person who died left in a will (see later) or elsewhere, or told anyone. If the person who died followed a religion, there may be religious practices to follow.

People often have different or strong views on what should be done. Discussing options together with other family members, or other people who were close to the person who died, and sharing tasks, can help. Alternatively, you may choose to let someone else make decisions.

As long as a legal method is chosen, no-one should push you to make arrangements for a burial or cremation that you are not comfortable with.

This means that no one else (for example a faith leader, or a funeral director, or friends) has the right to decide the details.

Some people hold more than one memorial event, so everyone gets an opportunity to say goodbye in a way that has meaning to them.

Using a funeral director

Many people use a funeral director to help arrange a burial or cremation. A funeral director may offer a range of services including:

• looking after a loved one’s body before a burial or cremation
• arranging for you to view a loved one’s body
• providing a choice of coffins, shrouds or urns to buy
• liaising with the burial ground or crematorium on your behalf
• organising a funeral ceremony
• transporting a loved one’s body.

Some people choose to use a funeral director only for certain things, such as looking after the body, or helping with the paperwork that needs to be completed after a death.

If you want to compare prices and services of funeral directors in your area, you can use one of these websites:

• www.funeral-directory.co.uk
• www.yourfuneralchoice.com
• www.beyond.life

If you decide to use a funeral director, you may want to choose one who is a member of an association and follows a code of practice. For a list of associations of funeral directors, go to www.brake.org.uk/orgs.

Some people choose not to use a funeral director because they want to manage arrangements themselves. You can get advice on managing arrangements yourself from the charity the Natural Death Centre. Go to www.naturaldeath.org.uk or call 01962 712 690.

Some people choose not to use a funeral director because arrangements are being managed by a faith leader.

Burial grounds

Your local authority or funeral director can provide you with lists of local cemeteries and church graveyards. Some burial grounds may already be full. The person in charge of a burial ground can tell you.

There are also an increasing number of woodland and meadow burial grounds. These are run by local authorities, private landowners and wildlife charities and provide a natural setting for burial, while also using the land to grow plants and encourage wildlife.

Ashes

If your loved one’s body is being cremated, then their ashes can be scattered in a place of your choice or garden of remembrance, buried in a cemetery or graveyard, or kept by you. You will need to get permission from any landowner before making arrangements to scatter or bury ashes.

Coffins and shrouds

Bodies can be placed in coffins made from a range of materials, including cardboard. The body can alternatively be wrapped in a shroud before being buried or cremated. You can buy coffins and shrouds from a funeral director, over the internet or make your own.

There are rules governing the materials that can be used to make coffins and wrap bodies. Your funeral director, if you are using one, should be able to give you advice about coffins and shrouds.

The Natural Death Centre can give you advice about natural burials, coffins and shrouds. They can also give advice about direct funerals and cremations (see later). Go to www.naturaldeath.org.uk or call 01962 712 690.

Paying for a burial or cremation

You may be able to get help paying for all or some of the costs of a burial or cremation if:

• you receive certain benefits. (Ask your local benefits office as soon as possible whether the government can help you pay, or go to www.mygov.scot and search for ‘Funeral Support Payment’)

• the person who died was signed up to a scheme providing payment for funeral costs. This scheme could be part of an employment package, a personal pension plan, or an insurance plan

• the person who died had paid in advance for their own burial or cremation through a payment plan. Some credit union accounts also make a payment towards funeral costs when the account holder dies. (Some payment plans may only pay for the use of a particular funeral director).

If you aren’t eligible for help paying funeral costs, you should still keep receipts of costs in case you can claim them back later. You may be able to do this if someone is found to have been responsible for a death and you are making a claim for compensation (see next page).

Direct funerals or cremations

One way to reduce the cost of a funeral is a burial or cremation without any mourners present. This is sometimes called a ‘direct’ funeral or cremation. The funeral director makes arrangements with the crematorium or burial site, collects the body, and returns ashes from the crematorium in an urn. Many people who choose this option still have a memorial ceremony, but hold it on a different day, later on.

All funeral directors should now be able to offer direct burials or cremations. They should also be able to advise you on other ways to lower the cost of a burial or cremation.

A direct cremation can also be arranged without a funeral director although you will need to make arrangements to transport the body yourself. You can ask a crematorium about how to arrange a direct cremation.

Hiring a solicitor

Many people bereaved by a road crash benefit from hiring one or more solicitors as soon as possible. The earlier you consult a solicitor, the sooner they can consider your case and the greater the chance they will be able to help you. An initial consultation with a solicitor should be free.

Different solicitors specialise in different areas of law.

A personal injury solicitor is the best person to advise you on whether you can claim compensation and pursue any claim for you. Sometimes a lot of money can be claimed, so it is important to find out.

You may also need advice from a solicitor specialising in wills (see next page). Depending on your circumstances, you may also need specialist advice regarding issues around a Fatal Accident Inquiry, a post mortem, a criminal case, or a death that happened abroad.

It is important to use solicitors experienced in the right areas of law. A solicitor who has helped you before, for example to buy a house, may not be the best solicitor for you now.

For advice on contacting a solicitor specialising in road death and personal injury claims, see Section 5: Can I claim compensation?

For more information on finding an expert solicitor that can help you, go to www.brake.org.uk/legal.

Wills

If you are the next of kin of an adult who has died, or you have been appointed as their representative, you need to find out if they made a will. Copies of wills may be held by a bank or solicitor. They may also be registered publicly with Registers of Scotland. You can call 0800 169 9391 or visit www.ros.gov.uk to find out.

A will appoints a person or people (known as an executor) to administer a dead person’s estate (everything they owned). It also gives instructions on what should happen to their possessions and money after their death, and may also include instructions about what sort of funeral they would like, and whether they would prefer a burial or cremation.

Wills can be complicated. Sometimes there is no will. Whether or not there is a will, a specialist solicitor will be able to give you advice on what you need to do.

The Law Society of Scotland provides details of solicitors who specialise in different areas of law, including wills. Go to www.lawscot.org.uk or email lawscot@lawscot.org.uk.

If you need advice about a will but cannot afford a solicitor, your local law centre can provide a free and independent legal service. To find details of a law centre near you, go to scotland.shelter.org.uk and search 'law centres'.

Benefits

Some people qualify for benefits after being bereaved. You may be able to claim benefits for all sorts of reasons, for example if a partner has died, or you are bringing up children on a low income.

If a person who died was claiming benefits or a state retirement pension, or you were receiving benefits for them, you need to tell their benefits office about the death.

To find out if you can claim any benefits, go to mygov.scot and search for ‘bereavement benefits’ or call the Department for Work and Pensions Bereavement Service on 0800 731 0469. For free advice from Citizens Advice Scotland, go to www.cas.org.uk.

Financial issues

Many people find their bereavement causes financial issues; for example, if a person who died was working and provided income. Some bereaved people struggle to pay bills at this time.

Some bereaved people also find they are managing finances for the first time, because this was a task undertaken by a person who died. Understanding finances that someone else previously managed can be challenging, particularly at such a difficult time.

The following organisations can give advice.

• StepChange Debt Charity
  call 0800 138 1111 or go to www.stepchange.org

• National Debtline
  call 0808 808 4000 or go to www.nationaldebtline.org

• Citizens Advice Scotland go to www.cas.org.uk

• Money Advice Service
  call 0800 138 7777 or go to www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk

If you are pursuing a claim for compensation, it is sometimes possible to obtain an early partial payment, to help with immediate financial needs. Your solicitor can advise you (see Section 5: Can I claim compensation?).

The Death Notification Service is a free service that allows you to notify a number of banks and building societies about a person's death, at the same time. To find out more, call 0333 207 6574 or go to www.deathnotificationservice.co.uk.

Social media

Communicating with friends, family or colleagues through social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) is an important part of many people’s lives. You may find comfort and support through your use of social media at this time.

It is important not to make comments publicly on websites that could create problems for a police investigation, a criminal trial or a compensation claim. If you wish to discuss such things with people who are close to you, it is safest to do so only through private messaging or email.

There are many websites that encourage people to state their views on public forums (for example, on news websites). These forums often contain a variety of views, some of which may not be sensitively worded nor fair comment. They may contain incorrect information.

A driver who has caused a crash may also post things on their own social media accounts that you may find upsetting. For your wellbeing, you may choose to avoid sites which could contain insensitive posts or incorrect information, and only visit places on the internet where you feel safe, and supported, and can trust what you are reading.

If you feel you are suffering online harassment, for example threats to harm you physically, talk to the police.

Your case in the media

Journalists from newspapers, or radio or TV programmes, often want to cover crashes and court cases. You cannot stop the media from reporting on your case or publishing your name and where you are from. Journalists may publish or broadcast stories about your case without talking to you, or they may phone you, knock on your door or approach you at a court hearing for a comment. They may ask you for a photograph or video of someone who has died. They may ask to interview you or photograph you.

Different people feel differently about the media. You may feel grateful for media coverage, or dislike it, or feel disappointed that there isn’t more media coverage. It is up to you whether you talk to journalists or not.

You may decide to talk to journalists to help raise awareness of road safety, or to help find witnesses to the crash. You may find that you prefer to talk to some journalists but not to others. You may decide not to talk to journalists for personal reasons.

If you aren’t contacted by journalists but want media coverage, you can contact them. You can call, email or write to journalists. Your solicitor or the police (see below) may be able to help you liaise with journalists.

Ask your police contact or your solicitor if there is anything you shouldn’t talk about to journalists. If someone is accused of causing a death, it is important not to make comments that could create problems for a police investigation, a criminal trial or a compensation claim.

Police help with the media

The police can often help you to manage your relationship with the media, particularly in the first few days after the crash or around any court case.

The police often release their own media statements about crashes and resulting court cases to the media, and will be able to give these to you.

Your police contact should be able to pass on to the media any written statement you want to make, any photograph you want to see published or video you want broadcast. In some cases, the police also organise press conferences for bereaved families. This might happen at the end of a court case, or to appeal for witnesses.

Police best practice is to help you develop a ‘media strategy’ that takes into account your views on media coverage.

Choosing a photo or video

When choosing a photo or video of someone who has died to pass on to the media, you may wish to consider how they would have wanted to be remembered. Your police contact can arrange for a photo to be altered if necessary – for example, taking a loved one’s image from a group photo.

A few families have given the media a photo of a loved one’s dead body, or of them critically ill in hospital before they died. They have done this as part of an appeal for witnesses or to explain to the public the horror of road crashes. This is a personal choice. If you are doing this, you can ask the media to use a photo for a specific purpose and on just one occasion, accompanied by specific words from you, and then ask for the photo not to be used again.

If you would like a photo to be used on just one occasion, you should agree this with the journalist who contacts you, before the photo is used, and you should get a record of this agreement. You can ask the journalist to email you about how the photo will be used or you can ask if you can record their verbal agreement on your mobile phone.

You can release a photo to just one journalist or lots of journalists. Your police contact may be able to help.

You are advised not to give original photos or videos to the media in case they lose them. It is better to give a digital copy, if you can.

Being interviewed by a journalist

Being interviewed by a journalist can be hard, particularly if they are a stranger and they want you to talk about how you feel. It can be particularly hard to do interviews that are being broadcast on radio or TV. If you decide to talk to a journalist, it can help to ask in advance what questions they want to ask, and to think what you might want to say. If you are doing an interview at a radio or TV station, you might want to take a friend for support, or, if you would prefer, ask for the interview to be done at your home.

Making a comment or complaint about the media

If you are unhappy with a journalist's conduct or think that a journalist has published or broadcast something that is incorrect or unfair, you can make a complaint to the relevant news outlet, following their published complaints procedure. Sometimes the media offers to print or broadcast an apology. A newspaper or magazine may offer to print a letter from you.

Media outlets often sign up to codes of practice that require them to respect the privacy and feelings of victims. To read these codes, go to www.brake.org.uk/codes-and-standards.

If you feel you are being harassed by a journalist, call the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) helpline: 07799 903 929.

To make a complaint about broadcasting, go to www.ofcom.org.uk or call 0300 123 3333.

Roadside memorials

Some people bereaved in road crashes wish to place flowers and other things at the place where a loved one has died, in their memory. Some people see this as an important expression of their grief. You may or may not want to do this.

Many local authorities allow small temporary memorials such as flowers and cards. Some local authorities grant permission for small permanent memorials, such as a plaque on a grass verge or, depending on the location, larger memorials such as a bench. However, some local authorities may not allow roadside memorials, and some may limit the length of time that flowers can be placed at the site of a crash. Memorials are not allowed on motorways.

If you want to seek permission for a roadside memorial, you need to talk to the roads department of the relevant local authority to find out what they allow. You may want to ask someone else to talk on your behalf to your local authority about roadside memorials. Brake’s National Road Victim Service can do this for you. Your solicitor, police contact, or another support agency may also be able to help. If cards or notes are placed by other people, you may want to ask your police contact to collect them after a period of time and give them to you.

The charity RoadPeace can provide a small plaque to use as a roadside memorial in memory of a loved one who has died. To order a plaque, email info@roadpeace.org or go to www.roadpeace.org.

Website memorials

Some people bereaved in road crashes decide to have a website in memory of a person who died, where they publish memories, poems, songs, messages, pictures or videos. There are several organisations that provide this service, including ones that are free or low cost. You can ask a funeral director for more information.

Brake’s National Road Victim Service can also put you in touch with these services, call 0808 8000 401 or email help@brake.org.uk.

You can find more information about memorialising and other ways to honour a loved one’s memory at www.brake.org.uk/memories.

Some people bereaved by a road crash wish to campaign for road safety.

If a loved one died abroad, there may be many added complications, such as different legal procedures or a language barrier.

Brake’s National Road Victim Service works with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to provide emotional and practical support to families and friends in the UK of anyone killed in a road crash abroad.

If you have been in touch with the FCDO, you should have been offered support from the National Road Victim Service. If not, you can call the National Road Victim Service on 0808 8000 401 (Monday–Friday, 10am–4pm) or email help@brake.org.uk.