Registering a death in the ACT

E.1The law and the registry

The law behind death registration in the ACT is the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997. Both interim and final death certificates come from Access Canberra, by way of the Registry of Births, Relationships and Deaths.

Access Canberra says the statement is usually lodged by one of two people:

• the funeral director; or
• the person who arranged the disposal of the person’s remains.

The statement is a form on Access Canberra’s page. Once it is filled in, it goes back by email to BDMDeathsOnline@act.gov.au, or is handed in at an Access Canberra Service Centre. Anyone registering a death without a funeral director is asked to use that same email address.

E.2Asking for a death certificate

A certificate is a separate request from the registration itself. Before applying, it helps to check these points against Access Canberra’s own page:

• Whether you are named on the registration. Someone who is not named needs either the consent of a person who is, or evidence of their relationship to the person who died.
• The wait. Access Canberra processes a request within 15 business days of receiving every required document, plus Australia Post’s delivery time. If the certificate has not arrived by then, Access Canberra’s number is 13 22 81.
• The fee. A fee waiver may be available to someone in financial hardship who needs the certificate to reach immediate services.
• What the online application asks for. Evidence of the relationship to the person who died, or a completed third-party consent form; three copies of proof of identity; and the fee. Every request is assessed against the ACT’s Births, Deaths and Marriages Access Policy.
• Whether the coroner is involved. Access Canberra will not issue a death certificate until there is a finding on the cause of death, so the family may first receive an interim one (below).

E.3Interim certificates, when the coroner has the case

When a death has gone to the coroner, the interim certificate becomes available once the family’s funeral home has applied to the Registrar of Births, Relationships and Deaths. It records that the death has been registered while the cause of death waits on the coroner’s findings.

In the ACT, an interim certificate is enough proof of death to start probate. The final certificate becomes available when the inquest is over. Anyone who received an interim certificate is sent the final one automatically ; anyone else can apply for the updated certificate once the Coroner’s Office has settled the cause of death. How long that can take is covered in how an ACT inquest runs.

E.4When the person was an organ or tissue donor

Access Canberra describes two ways of formally recognising a person who was an organ or tissue donor.

• a statement in the death register, which can be added to the death certificate and reads, in Access Canberra’s words, “The deceased gave a gift of life, generously donating organs/tissue”;
• a letter of acknowledgement from the ACT Chief Minister.

The application can ask for either one or both, and the next of kin first obtains a donor confirmation letter from Donate Life ACT to upload with it. Only the next of kin can ask. The request can be made at any time; to have the acknowledgement made as the death is registered, Access Canberra asks for a call on 13 22 81. The application is free, and so is a death certificate reissued to carry the acknowledgement.

E.5Correcting a mistake on the register

Information on the death register can be corrected. An immediate family member of the person who died, or the person who notified the death, can apply for a correction. The application needs two things:

1. three forms of proof of identity, at least one of them a primary proof of identity;
2. evidence that supports the correction.

E.6Early pregnancy loss certificates

A loss before 20 weeks’ gestation is not officially registered as a birth or a death. Access Canberra offers instead an early pregnancy loss certificate, which acknowledges the pregnancy and the loss. It is not a legal document.

If the loss happened after 20 weeks, Access Canberra’s page says the birth needs to be registered. Canberra Memorial Parks’ gardens for babies and children are described in burial in Canberra’s public cemeteries.

E.7Telling organisations, deaths overseas and older records

Telling organisations. The Australian Death Notification Service lets a family tell several organisations about a death through one notification, which makes it easier to transfer or close the person’s accounts.

A death overseas. Access Canberra notes that when an Australian citizen dies overseas, the death does not necessarily need to be registered in Australia; usually it is registered in the country where the person died. In some circumstances an overseas death is registered here, generally by the registry of the state or territory where the person used to live.

Family history. Access Canberra’s historic death index gives limited information about deaths registered in the ACT more than 30 years ago. Each entry gives the registration number, the person’s names and date of death, and the names of their father and mother.