Ordering and retaining medical certificates of cause of death (MCCDs)

The current medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) was introduced as part of the statutory medical examiner system on 9 September 2024, along with updated guidance for medical practitioners completing an MCCD in England and Wales. 

The Department of Health and Social Care sent guidance on how to order MCCDs - and a unique passcode - to organisations that use MCCDs.

Ordering more MCCDs

All organisations that use MCCDs should ensure they have enough MCCDs to last a year and order more if necessary.

New MCCDs are usually delivered within 5 working days of receipt of the order. 

You can order more MCCDs using the guidance and passcode you received.  

If you did not receive, or have lost, the guidance and/or your unique passcode, email the MCCD mailbox at mccd@dhsc.gov.uk specifying whether you require a passcode, guidance or both.

For passcode and guidance requests to be processed, you must:

• copy in a colleague from your organisation (for security and confirmation of organisation)
• supply the organisation’s full address, including postcode

Organisations in Wales must order the bilingual MCCD only. This is shown by the letter ‘W’ at the end of the MCCD product - for example, APC1W, APC2W, MEC3W and MEC4W.

Retaining the completed MCCD

Many GPs, hospitals, hospices, care homes and medical examiner offices scan the completed MCCD before emailing it to their medical examiner office (and many medical examiner offices scan the completed MCCD before sending it to the register office). You must securely store the paper copy of the completed MCCD and any partially completed MCCDs until the medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death to you and sent the completed MCCD to the registrar.

Once the medical examiner has confirmed the cause of death and sent the completed MCCD to the registrar, all duplicate copies of the MCCD, held by the attending practitioner and medical examiner, can be destroyed.

In England and Wales, GPs, hospitals, hospices and medical examiner offices must keep completed counterfoils for 2 years in line with NHS England’s records management code of practice and NHS Wales’ records management code of practice 2022.

Old MCCD

You should securely destroy unused booklets of the MCCD that were in use before 9 September 2024.

For partially used booklets, you should remove and securely destroy the unused MCCDs, leaving the counterfoils only.

In England, GPs, hospitals, hospices, care homes and medical examiner offices must keep completed counterfoils for old MCCDs for 2 years before destroying in line with NHS England’s records management code of practice.

In Wales, the equivalent guidance is the NHS Wales records management code of practice. This sets out the requirements for the retention, storage and destruction of health records, including those related to death.