Register a death

When someone dies, many different organisations need to be told. This service means that you will only have to tell about someone's death once; we will then share the information with other organisations. This service is only available at Caernarfon, Bangor, Pwllheli and Dolgellau registry offices.

The death needs be registered at any of Gwynedd’s registry offices by prior arrangement. The registration will take about 30 minutes. To arrange an appointment to register a death please call: 01766 771000. 

The death needs to be registered in the area where the person died. You can give a declaration of the death at any of Gwynedd’s registry offices and the details will then be sent to the registration office in the area where the person died. In this instance, the registration office in the area where the person died will be producing the relevant documents, not Gwynedd. For further information or advice, please call 01766 771000. 

The death needs to be registered at one of Gwynedd’s registry offices by prior arrangement. You can give the declaration of death at any registration office in Wales and England and the information will then be sent on to Gwynedd. In this instance, we will be sending the relevant documents once we receive the declaration from the other office and will have completed the registration. For further information or advice, or to arrange an appointment to register death, please call 01766 771000.  

If a child is born after 24 weeks of pregnancy, but who after the birth does not breathe or show any other sign of life, the child needs to be registered as a stillbirth. 

If a child is born and lives for any period of time, the event must be registered as a birth and a death.

For further information or to arrange an appointment to register, please call 01766 771000. 

Anyone can call to arrange an appointment to register a death. However, there is a responsibility on one of the persons named below to register the death (in order of priority).

1. A relative to the deceased (usually the next of kin)
2. A person who was present at the time of death 
3. Owner/manager of the residential home/hospital where the person died
4. The person responsible for arranging the funeral (e.g. friend or lawyer)

There are other examples – contact us on 01766 771000 for advice. 

You will need the medical death certificate to register a death. You will be given this certificate from the hospital or from the doctor who was caring for the deceased. You will also need the following information about the person who has died:

To register the death of a person under 16 years old:

• full name
• date of birth 
• place of birth 
• home address
• occupation of both parents.

 

To register the death of a person over 16 years old:

• full name
• date of birth
• place of birth
• home address
• occupation of the deceased
• if you have the person’s medical card, please bring it with you, although it will be possible to register without it
• if the deceased was a married woman or in a civil partnership, we will also need to know her maiden name, as well as her partner’s full name, date of birth and occupation.

If a post-mortem is held please wait for the coroner's instruction before contacting us. Once the corner is happy for us to register the death, he will send us the appropriate documents. 

Copies of the death certificate can be purchased at the appointment to register the death. Please bear in mind that a number of establishments will ask for a copy of the death certificate when you close bank accounts etc, therefore it is likely you will want to purchase more than one copy of the death certificate.

• Cost
  £12.50 each during the registration.
• How to pay?
  You can pay during the appointment with cash, debit or credit cards, cheque or postal order made payable to ‘Cyngor Gwynedd’.

Additional copies of death certificates can be purchased at any time. For prices of additional copies go to the copies of death certificates page on this website. 

If you believe there is an error on a death certificate, please contact us by calling 01766 771000.