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21
DEATH REGISTRATION AND BURIAL BILL.
A Bill for effecting a much needed reform with regard to death registration
was read a first time on 1st March, 1909. An explanatory memorandum
to the Bill stated that the object of its promotion was to give effect to the
principal recommendations put forward by the Select Committee on Death
Certification, which met in 1893, in order to guard against crime and
premature burial.
Briefly, the Bill provided that no death should be registered until a proper
certificate of death had been delivered to the Registrar either by—
(1) The registered medical practitioner who attended the deceased
during his last illness, or
(2) The "Public Certifier of Deaths" in cases when the deceased was
unattended by a medical man, or
(3) In Inquest cases when the Coroner's certificate of death and a
verification certificate signed by the "Public Certifier of Deaths" would
be required.
It will be seen that the Bill created a new public functionary, viz., the
"Public Certifier of Deaths." This officer was required to be a registered
medical practitioner, who was to be appointed and paid by the Board o
Guardians, who were to appoint one in each registration sub district in their
Union.
Medical men in attendance on a deceased person were required to certify
the death within five days.
Children delivered still-born after twenty-eight weeks pregnancy were to
have been registered as having been born alive.
The Local Government Board were to make regulations prescribing the duties
of the "Public Certifier of Deaths." If passed, the Bill would have become
operative on the 1st January in this year, but it was dropped before reaching
a second reading.
There can be no question that the law with regard to death certification and
registration requires amendment. The last published Report of the Registrar
General shows that during the year 1908 there were 7,433 cases, or 1.42 per
cent. of all deaths during that period in England and Wales in which the
cause of death was not certified either by medical practitioners or by coroners.*
The Parliamentary Committee of 1893, referred to in the Memorandum
published by the authors of the Bill, referred to above, was appointed at the
instance of the Cremation Society of England under the guidance of its
founder, the late Sir Henry Thompson, and, notwithstanding the strong case
for reform shown by the nature of the evidence given at that enquiry and the
* This is the lowest proportion of uncertified deaths hitherto recorded.