Guidance

St Vincent and the Grenadines: bereavement pack

Updated 20 September 2024

Bereavement Information

The death of a relative or a friend is always a distressing experience. When the death occurs overseas, family and friends can feel additional distress as they are unfamiliar with procedures abroad. You may be uncertain about what to do next or who to contact for advice. The British High Commission Bridgetown in Barbados is ready to assist and provide advice where they can. We offer help which is appropriate to the individual circumstances of each case. We will make an assessment of the needs you have, based on who you are, where you are, and the support available to you. Our assessment will help us define the type of support that we can offer.

Whilst care has been taken in compiling these notes, no legal liability for their contents is accepted by the British High Commission or HM Government. The use of the terms body, body parts, remains, deceased etc. are not meant to offend you in any way. We realise that we are referring to your loved one and we mean no disrespect to the person you have lost.

What happens when someone dies

When someone dies in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the next of kin is in the UK or abroad, the local authorities normally notify the British High Commission Bridgetown that the person has died, and they will do whatever they can to trace the next of kin as soon as possible and would ask the UK police to pass on the sad news. However you might also be notified about the death directly by someone else, for example a doctor, a social worker or a police officer.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines the seniority of next of kin is usually as follows:

• spouse/partner/civil partner

• adult child (i.e. over 18 years old)

• parent

• adult sibling (i.e. over 18 years old)

• an adult with sufficient relationship to the deceased

• an ex-partner is not regarded as next of kin

A relative or a formally appointed representative must instruct a local funeral director in St. Vincent and the Grenadines or an international funeral director in the UK for a body to be repatriated to the UK or buried or cremated in Grenada and the ashes returned to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However if the deceased was insured you should immediately contact the insurance company to establish if they are able to cover for the repatriation expenses and make the necessary arrangements. You may need the insurance policy number and the associated 24hr medical emergency contact number to do this. If the travel insurance company confirm that there is a current policy, you should not appoint your own funeral director or be pressurised by local funeral agencies to do so. It will be the insurance company that will appoint the funeral director both locally and in the UK. If there is no insurance cover, unfortunately funds for repatriation or burial will need to be met by the family. The British High Commission Bridgetown does not have budgets to meet these costs. A list of UK funeral directors and the major local funeral directors associations are included at the end of this guide. In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it is not normally necessary for the deceased to be identified by the next of kin. Identification can be carried out by means of documentation such as a passport or driving licence, identification card or by fingerprints, dental records or DNA.

Local death certificate

Registration of the death

The St Vincent authorities will issue a death certificate in English. This is issued by the Registry and can be made available on the same day that the cause of death is established. The death certificate will give details of the cause of death, as would be the case in the UK. The local death certificate will be accepted in the UK.

Deaths in St Vincent and the Grenadines may be registered with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in the UK. This form of death registration is not compulsory. However, the advantages are that a) you will have a British form of a death certificate b) a permanent and accessible record of the death will be kept at the General Register Office in the United Kingdom.

To receive a British form death certificate, an application should be made online at www.gov.uk/register-a-death. There is a statutory fee for this which is payable online when making the application.

Although not obligatory, it is possible to register the death of a British national who has died in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with UK authorities. Full information on how to apply for the registration of a death is available at this link: https://www.gov.uk/register-a-death

British passport cancellation

In order to avoid identity fraud a deceased person’s passport should be sent to the British High Commission Bridgetown together with the death certificate and D01 form or direct to HM Passport Office in the UK. The form can be obtained on the link below. Next of kin can request the passport to be returned after cancellation. Likewise, if the passport has been lost or mislaid, relatives should get in contact with either the nearest Consulate or passport office for instructions on reporting the loss of the passport.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-to-do-with-a-passport-when-the-passport-holder-has-died

Repatriation

If the deceased was covered by travel insurance, the insurance company will normally have a standing agreement with an international funeral director in the UK to arrange repatriation. If the deceased was not covered by insurance, you will need to appoint a local undertaker in St. Vincent and the Grenadines or an international funeral director in the UK. The deceased can be buried locally or the body can be repatriated for burial in the UK. Funeral directors in St Vincent can handle all the details for the repatriation. They will use either a funeral director in the UK chosen by the relatives or, if there is no preference, they can identify a suitable director.

Although there are no local cremation facilities, requests for cremations may be facilitated through the crematorium in Grenada. If a local burial or cremation takes place, it will not be possible for an inquest into the death to take place in the UK.

If the decision has been made to cremate locally (transported to Grenada and sent back to St. Vincent) and the next of kin wish to transport the ashes to the UK in person this is possible. We advise to check in advance with the airline about specific airline restrictions.

Clothing and personal belongings

Personal effects are returned to the next of kin or the person arranging the funeral, provided that they are not required as evidence for a trial. Personal belongings found on the deceased at the time of death are either handed over to the family, if they are present, or taken by the police. If the next of kin chooses repatriation, it is advisable to instruct the local undertaker to collect the belongings from the police and to ship personal belongings together with the body.

Local burial

The deceased can be buried locally or the body can be repatriated for burial in the UK. Funeral directors in St Vincent can handle all the details for the repatriation. They will use either a funeral director in the UK chosen by the relatives or, if there is no preference, they can identify a suitable director.

Although there are no local cremation facilities, requests for cremations may be facilitated through the crematorium in Grenada. If a local burial or cremation takes place, it will not be possible for an inquest into the death to take place in the UK.

Local cremation

If you are thinking of arranging a local cremation, please be advised that cremations are not done in St. Vincent and the Grenadines but the bodies are shipped to Grenada, where the cremation will be done and shipped back to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Autopsy and post-mortems

An Autopsy, which is also known as a Post-mortem mortems are carried out in cases of sudden death where there is no prior history of illness to explain the death. Organs are not retained, except in rare cases when there is need for further forensic investigation. The family can ask the presiding pathologist for a copy of the report of the post-mortem. There are mortuary facilities in the capital, Kingstown, only.

Inquests

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines a Coroner, usually a magistrate, will investigate deaths that are ‘unnatural’ such as accidents, suicides or homicides; deaths that have occurred in prison or in care, or have unknown causes. A copy of the police report is available on application to the Commissioner of Police. The fee for a copy of the report is currently EC$100.00. If the police arrest a suspect there will be a preliminary inquiry before a magistrate to establish if there is sufficient evidence to go to trial. If the magistrate finds that there is a case to answer, the file is sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions who will prepare an indictment. The charge will then be heard before a judge and jury in the High Court. After conviction and sentence the defendant may appeal to the East Caribbean Court of Appeal and finally to the Privy Council in London.

Legal aid

Legal Aid is not available in St Vincent. However in the case of murder the state will provide the accused with defence council.

Compensation

There is no government compensation scheme in murder/manslaughter/terrorism cases although it is possible for the judge to order the convicted person to pay compensation to the victim.

Release of information

Access to information concerning a death is restricted until a Coroner has reviewed the evidence such as post-mortem and police reports. The Vincentian authorities will usually not provide this information directly to next of kin, or to third parties, including our Consulates, until after the conclusion of the preliminary investigation. The release of any information will usually take several months and in some more complicated instances, years.

Organ donation

St. Vincent and the Grenadines do not keep organs for donations.

Donation of bodies to medical science

St. Vincent and the Grenadines do not keep bodies for medical science.

UK coroners

The Coroner in England and Wales is obliged by law to hold an inquest into the cause of any unnatural or violent death of a person whose remains lie in his or her area, even if the death
occurred overseas and a post-mortem has already been carried out before repatriation of the remains to the UK. Coroners may order a second post mortem (i.e. subsequent to the first post mortem carried out abroad), as part of the inquest and it is at this stage that families are often made aware that organs have been removed and not replaced. Coroners can request copies of post-mortem and police reports from the Vincentian authorities via the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. However, these will only be provided once any judicial proceedings are completed. In some instances this can take many months. UK coroners can compel witnesses to give evidence from England and Wales but not from abroad.

In Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) deals with the investigation of all sudden, suspicious, accidental, unexpected and unexplained deaths which occur in Scotland. However, the COPFS does not have the jurisdiction to investigate deaths that occur outside Scotland apart from in a few limited circumstances. Generally, those circumstances include terrorism, cases where the death may have been caused in Scotland but the person died outside Scotland and cases where the death was as a result of murder or culpable homicide caused by another British citizen or subject.

Coroners in Northern Ireland are not obliged to hold an inquest into cause of death. However, next of kin can apply for a judicial review if no inquest is held. There will be no Coroner’s inquest when the remains are buried or cremated locally. Further information about the role of UK Coroners is available on the FCDO publication: Guide for Bereaved Families.

Local funeral homes

Everready Funeral Home
Frenches
Box 230
Kingstown

Tel: (784) 456 1494/ (784) 457 1044
Fax: (784) 457 2559

[email protected]

New Haven Funeral Home
Kingstown & Mesopotamia
Kingstown

Tel: (784) 457 1830
Fax: (784) 456 2801

Mesopotamia

Tel: (784) 458 1467
Fax: (784) 458 1480

You can also find a list of International Funeral Directors.