Bath & North East Somerset Council understands that
losing a loved one can be a difficult and upsetting time.
Our staff are available to help you through
the whole process. Most people retain the services of a
Funeral Director to help them arrange the
right ceremony for them, and to deal with the process, freeing
them from the paperwork & procedures at an emotional
time.
Please consider long and hard before deciding to arrange a
funeral for a close friend or relation. Remember that it is a
Funeral Director’s job to make everything happen with apparently
effortless ease. It is not generally as easy as it looks, and when
you are emotionally involved and upset is not the best time to find
this out. There will in any case be a number of things that you
have to do without taking on more.
Having said this, it can be a very rewarding experience to
feel that you have personally organised everything necessary
for this last goodbye, rather than leave it to strangers, however
sympathetic and competent.
Choices
Before you start, you need to make some decisions. These are
usually made before death, and are frequently based on the wishes
of the deceased. There are 2 key choices:
First steps
If you have time to plan in advance, so much the better. You can
contact all possible sources of help, so that you know what you are
letting yourself in for, where to go and what to do.
You may still need the services of a Funeral Director in a
limited way.
For example:
- if the death occurs in hospital, will you need someone to
collect the body from the mortuary?
Or
- if the death occurs at home, do you have the facility to store
the body until the funeral?
Some Funeral Directors are happy to provide such limited
services, although you may need to telephone a few to find one that
does. A list of local Funeral Directors is available from Haycombe
office.
Your first step towards arranging the funeral itself is to
contact the crematorium office to make a booking for a service
time. You will need to make it plain that you are arranging the
funeral yourself, because we do not usually accept bookings other
than through a Funeral Director. A Funeral Director makes the
booking once he is sure that he can provide a hearse, cars and
bearers at the required time.
At the same time you should make an appointment with the
Registrar of Births and Deaths. The appointment must be take place
at least 48 hours before you hope to have the funeral.
A coffin will be needed.
- Staff at the crematorium may be able to offer advice regarding
possible suppliers.
- They will also advise you of types of material that cannot be
allowed into the cremators for environmental and safety reasons, if
you wish to construct the coffin yourself.
- There are specialist suppliers where ‘green’ or customised
coffins can be obtained.
Forms
- If a coroner is involved, as is usually the case in a sudden
death, a death abroad or an accident, the coroner will issue a
Coroner’s E form. This replaces both a Registrar’s Certificate of
Disposal and the Medical form i.e. you will not need either of
these if a coroner has issued an E form. The coroner is often
consulted, so there is no cause for concern – it does not mean that
there is anything ‘wrong’ or out of the ordinary If a CORONER is
involved, the Registrar will not give you a green form when you go
to register the death, instead a Coroner’s E form will be issued
and sent direct to the crematorium, or you may have to collect it
from the coroner’s office for a burial.
- Otherwise, the Registrar will issue you with a Certificate for
Burial or Cremation, a green form otherwise called a Disposal
Certificate, when you go to register the death. The Disposal is one
of three statutory forms required by the medical referee before
he/she will allow a cremation to take place, or if a burial is to
follow the funeral, it is the only form required by the Burial
Authority.
The other forms are available from Haycombe office, although
your GP may have a ‘Medical’ or ‘B, C & F’
form.
- A Preliminary Application form – this is normally completed by
the Funeral Director. It gives all the details necessary for the
funeral itself e.g. minister’s name, music – CDs or organist,
wheelchair needed, etc., etc. It is not a statutory form and will
not be sent to the medical referee, but it is a most important form
as it contains the information to enable the funeral itself to run
smoothly.
- The Application form ‘A’ is a statutory form and must be
completed by the executor or the next of kin. If there is neither,
anyone may apply for a cremation to take place, but they must
explain clearly why they are doing so on the form and it will be up
to the medical referee to decide if he will allow the cremation to
take place. Care should be taken over deciding on an applicant for
cremation as only the applicant will have the right to direct what
happens to the cremated remains i.e. no-one else will be able to
collect them or witness their burial or make any decision about
them. The reverse of the application form must be completed by the
applicant for cremation too. If no decision about eventual disposal
has yet been made, opt for hold. The crematorium will hold them for
a month free of charge.
- The Medical or B, C & F (so called because it is three
forms in one, all signed by different doctors) must be completed by
the doctor attending during the last illness (part B), and by a
doctor from an entirely different practice (part C), who must talk
to someone other than the part B doctor who was present at the
death or during the last illness. (Part F will be signed by the
medical referee, when he has scrutinised all the papers sent to him
daily by the Cremation Authority.) There is a charge for this
service, each doctor receiving a sum fixed by the BMA . Ask at your
local surgery.
It is the responsibility of the applicant for cremation to
deliver all of these forms to the crematorium office at least 48
hours prior to cremation.
There is a cremation fee (telephone the office for current fees)
payable when the papers are brought to the office. The cremation
fee includes:
- The cremation itself.
- The medical referee’s fee.
- The services of an organist and/or use of CD facilities.
- A certificate of cremation (needed if the remains are to be
taken away).
- The cost of interment in a shrubbery (our equivalent of
‘scattering’).
For a burial only the Disposal and a completed Application form
is required. The application form can be obtained from the main
office.
Other options
Woodland burial
Burial at Sea
How to contact us
The cemetery and crematorium office is open
8.30am - 4.30pm, Monday to Friday.
It is not open at weekends or Bank holidays.
An answering service operates outside of normal office hours.
All messages, emails, and on-line submissions will be dealt with,
at the latest, during office hours the next working day.
