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Death certification reform and the introduction of medical examiners

Information about changes to the death certification process in England and Wales from 9 September 2024.

From:
Department of Health and Social Care
Published
14 December 2023
Last updated
25 June 2024 — See all updates

Regulations

Regulations introducing changes to the death certification process were laid before Parliament on 15 April 2024 and will come into force on 9 September 2024:

These regulations are part of the wider reform of the death certification process. The reforms change the way in which the causes of deaths are scrutinised and certified in England and Wales with the introduction of a statutory medical examiner system.

The regulations introduce new medical certificates of cause of death (MCCD) to be used by attending practitioners and medical examiners from 9 September 2024.

Overview of the death certification reforms

Impact assessments and consultation outcome

We published a full impact assessment in June 2018 as part of the death certification reforms consultation outcome. This was updated in 2022 as part of the Health and Care Act: combined impact assessments - see the ‘Summary document and analysis of additional measures’ on that page.

On 15 April 2024 we published ‘Medical examiners and death certification reform: summary of impact’. This updates the 2018 and 2022 impact assessments and should be read alongside these.

Updates to this page

Published 14 December 2023
Last updated 25 June 2024 + show all updates

  1. Added a section on the new medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD).

  2. Removed draft regulations and added links to the final regulations. Added links to 2 impact assessments: 'Medical examiners and death certification reform: summary of impact' and 'Health and Care Act 2022: combined impact assessments'.

  3. First published.

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