Annex A > Chapter 18 - Medical and Clinical Audit > Audit: the national perspective > Records kept by the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and the Office for National Statistics

Records kept by the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and the Office for National Statistics

147 The registrar for each sub-district [173] receives reports of all deaths occurring in his sub-district for entry into the register. As with the coroner, his records relate to deaths occurring within his jurisdiction. The registrars would not for example receive reports of deaths occurring following surgery at a hospital lying within his sub-district if the deaths occurred after discharge from the hospital, and in another sub-district.

148 The reports the registrar receives will be from various sources: either the medical practitioner who attended the deceased during the last illness [174] (the medical certificate), or from the coroner. As noted above, the report from the coroner to the registrar may be on Pink Form 100A where the cause of death will be that certified by the deceased's doctor, or on Pink Form 100B where the cause of death will be that disclosed by the pathologist. After an inquest the coroner reports on Form 99, [175] providing the registrar with the particulars required to be registered: the date and place of death, name and surname, sex, date and place of birth and occupation and usual address of the deceased.

149 The registrar delivers certified quarterly returns of all entries in his register to the superintendent registrar who, four times a year, sends copies to the Registrar General. [176] The Registrar General's office, the General Register Office, forms part of the Office for National Statistics [177] and is responsible for the central archive of all registrations of births, marriages and deaths that have occurred in England and Wales since 1 July 1837.

150 The Registrar General annually provides the Chancellor of the Exchequer with a general abstract of the entries for the preceding year, including the number of deaths, which is then laid before both Houses of Parliament. [178]

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Footnotes

[173] England and Wales are divided into districts and sub-districts for the purposes of registration, by the Registration Service Act 1953, s5(1) as amended

[174] Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 s22(1)

[175] Coroners Act 1988 s11(7)

[176] Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 s27

[177] Formed on 1 April 1996 by the merger of the Central Statistical Office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Office for Population Censuses and Surveys

[178] Registration Service Act 1953 s19