IHTM11295 - Emergency service personnel responding to emergency circumstances: evidence to show exemption is due

There is no process equivalent to the MoD certification of entitlement (IHTM11304) for emergency services personnel.  Instead, personal representatives should provide such evidence as is available to show that the deceased’s death was as a result of, or was hastened by, their being an emergency responder who was responding to emergency circumstance.  Such evidence is likely to include

• evidence that the deceased attended the incident in their capacity as an emergency responder.  This could be in the form of evidence from the emergency service concerned, a police report or perhaps press reports,
• a copy of the death certificate, and
• a medical report which should (if necessary) explain the link between the cause of death and the emergency circumstances concerned.

The extent of the evidence needed will vary depending on length of time between the incident and the death.  Where the death occurs at the incident or very shortly thereafter, it is likely that quite basic information will be sufficient to prove entitlement to the exemption.  Where the death occurs sometime after the incident, including many years after the incident, the evidence will need to be more substantial to show that the deceased was an emergency responder who was responding to emergency circumstances and that the death was a result of those actions.