Following a change of process, we recognise providers may no longer have access to the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death and therefore are not able to notify of the official cause of death. We are currently liaising with the Scottish Government about these changes and how this has affected providers.

As set out in The Regulation of Care (Requirements as to Care Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2002 (SSI 114) providers must keep records detailing the date, time and cause of death of any service user who has died while the care service was being provided to the service user and the name of the doctor certifying death.

The regulations also stipulate that, “a provider shall give notice to the Commission without delay of the death of any service user who has died while the care service was being provided to the service user, and of the circumstances of the death.” Please be assured that we will not hold any provider responsible where they cannot meet the above statutory duties as we recognise this is out with their control.

Providers should continue to notify us of deaths in line with our current guidance which sets out what information should be kept by the service and what forms part of the notification. Providers should continue to share with us information on the circumstances of the death as far as these are known. While we are liaising with the Scottish Government we ask that if providers do not have access to all relevant details (that are usually gained from the medical certificate of cause of death) we ask that “unknown” is recorded for that field.