The following link gives free and comprehensive advice on what to do when someone dies:
Lastingpost.com
The MIND page, Useful Contacts, provides links where you can obtains support for the bereaved and more information on bereavement.
In brief, there are three things that must be done in the first few days;
- Get a medical certificate from your GP or hospital doctor (this is necessary to register the death)
- Register the death within 5 days. You will then receive the necessary documents for the funeral.
- Make the necessary funeral arrangements.
In certain circumstances, the death must be reported to the coroner, who will then be responsible for providing the death certificate.
The doctor attending following a person’s death will report the death to the local coroner in the following circumstances:
1. The deceased was not attended by a doctor during the last illness or the doctor treating the deceased had not seen the deceased either after the death or in the fourteen days before the death.
2. The death occurred during an operation.
3. The death was unnatural, due to violence or occurred under suspicious circumstances.
4. The death occurred in police custody or in prison.
5. The death was due to industrial disease.
Register a death
You can register the death if you are a relative, a witness to the death, a hospital administrator or the person making the arrangements with the funeral directors.
The Government website, Register a Death can guide you through the registration process.
Arrange the funeral
The funeral can usually only take place after the death is registered. Most people use a funeral director, though you can arrange a funeral yourself.
Funeral directors
Choose a funeral director who’s a member of one of the following:
National Association of Funeral Directors
National Federation of Funeral Directors
Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors
These organisations have codes of practice - they must give you a price list when asked.
Some local councils run their own funeral services, for example for non-religious burials.
Wales Humanists can also help with non religious funerals
Arranging the funeral yourself
Contact the Cemeteries and Crematorium Department of your local council to arrange a funeral yourself. In Cardiff this is Cardiff Bereavement Services
Funeral costs
Funeral costs can include:
Funeral director fees
Things the funeral director pays for on your behalf (called ‘disbursements’ or ‘third-party costs’), for example, crematorium or cemetery fees, or a newspaper announcement about the death
Local authority burial or cremation fees
Funeral directors may list all these costs in their quotes.