Explanatory Notes

Certification of Death (Scotland) Act 2011

2011 asp 11

20 April 2011

Commentary on Sections

Review of medical certificates of cause of death

Section 9: Action following satisfactory review

30.If the medical reviewer is satisfied with the medical certificate of cause of death, then he or she must approve it and notify the relevant registrar (in practice, this will mean sending the certificate back to the relevant registrar for registration to occur).

31.The relevant registrar is defined in section 31 and will usually be the district registrar who has made the referral or, where that person is unknown to the medical reviewer (as might be the case in an interested person application), the Registrar General.

32.In cases where the registration of the death has been stayed, the registrar will then be free to complete it and notify the informant, that is the relative or other person who came to register the death.