Bereaved Wiltshire families will no longer have the burden of contacting numerous organisations to register a death after a new scheme was launched.

The Tell us Once service means that families only need to contact one local or central government organisation. News of the death is then shared with the other departments which would normally have had to be notified separately. People can contact Wiltshire Council or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the rest is done for them.

The passport office, DVLA and HMRC are all notified alongside council services such as adult social care, blue badges, council housing, children’s services, council tax, electoral services, housing and council tax benefit, libraries and any money owed to the council.

The project was launched on February 1 by Wiltshire Council in partnership with DWP and is the most comprehensive of its kind in Britain.

Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott said: “If we can make families lives a little bit easier at such a difficult time then this is well worth it.”