The Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Made: 24th October 2024

Laid before Parliament: 25th October 2024

Coming into force: 22nd November 2024

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 20(1)(a) to (k), (m) and (o), and 176(3) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009[^f00001] and section 26(2) of the Welsh Language Act 1993[^f00002].

In accordance with section 20(3) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, the Secretary of State has consulted the Welsh Ministers, the Registrar General and the Statistics Board in relation to the forms prescribed under section 20(1)(m) of that Act.

Citation, commencement and extent

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (Amendment) Regulations 2024 and come into force on 22nd November 2024.

• (2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales.

Amendments of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Regulations 2024

2

The Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Regulations 2024[^f00003] are amended in accordance with regulations 3 to 5.

Supply of information

3

After regulation 25 insert—

(25A) (1) A supply of information under these Regulations— (a) does not breach any obligation of confidence owed by the person supplying the information; and (b) does not operate to require or authorise the disclosure or use of information which would contravene data protection legislation. (2) In this regulation, “data protection legislation” has the same meaning as in section 3(9) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

[^f00004].

Amendment to Schedule 3

4

In Schedule 3, for Part 2 (medical examiner’s certificate - live-born child dying within the period of 28 days beginning with the day of the child’s birth; English and Welsh form) substitute the form as set out in Part 1 of the Schedule.

Amendment to Schedule 4

5

In Schedule 4, for Part 2 (medical examiner’s certificate - other cases; English and Welsh form) substitute the form as set out in Part 2 of the Schedule.

Schedule — MEC3 and MEC4

Part 1 — English and Welsh form

Part 2 — English and Welsh form

Signed

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Merron — Parliamentary Under Secretary of State — Department of Health and Social Care — 24th October 2024

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Explanatory Note

These Regulations amend the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Regulations 2024/492 (“the MCCD Regulations 2024”).

Regulation 3 inserts a new provision into the MCCD Regulations 2024 which provides that the supply of any information under those Regulations does not breach any obligation of confidence. It also provides that those Regulations do not require or authorise the disclosure or use of information which would contravene data protection legislation.

Regulation 4 substitutes the MEC4 form contained in Part 2 of Schedule 3 to the MCCD Regulations 2024, to update the medical examiner’s declaration in order to correctly state the role of the medical examiner in relation to the death and to replace the field which states “name of deceased” with “name of child”.

Regulation 5 substitutes the MEC3 form contained in Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the MCCD Regulations 2024, to remove a redundant field and to update the medical examiner’s declaration in order to correctly state the role of the medical examiner in relation to the death.

Assessments of the impact the MCCD Regulations 2024 would have had on the costs of business, the voluntary sector and the public sector were prepared. These assessments apply equally to these Regulations and are available from https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/death-certification-reforms and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-and-care-act-2022-combined-impact-assessments. Hard copies can be obtained by writing to the Department of Health and Social Care, 39 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0EU.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2009 c. 25.

[^f00002]: 1993 c. 38. See section 27(4) for the meaning of “the appropriate Minister”.

[^f00003]: S.I. 2024/492.

[^f00004]: 2018 c. 12, as amended by The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/419).