§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will introduce legislation to enable funeral directors to register deaths on behalf of the bereaved to remove the requirement on the bereaved to register a death at the registrar's office for the area where the death occurred.
§ Mrs. CurrieAt present, information for the registration of a death may only be given to the registrar of the sub-district in which the event occurred.
A change to enable a death in England and Wales to be notified to any registrar of deaths in those countries was recently recommended for consideration in the efficiency scrutiny into the registration service which reported in 1985. Following my noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State's announcement in the other place on 3 December 1987—Official Report, House of 45W Lords, column 1230—consultations have been opened on the scrutiny recommendations and on wider issues including the list of persons qualified to register deaths. It is as yet too early to predict the outcome of those consultations.