Probate Service: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve transparency and reduce delays in the probate service.
Answered by Catherine Atkinson
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in our quarterly Family Court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.
HMCTS publishes recent management information (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly) which provides waiting time information: HMCTS management information - GOV.UK.
Individual users can track the progress and status of their digital applications using the online tracker and they also receive email and text updates at various stages of the process. For paper applications users can call the probate service for an update if the grant has not been issued within 12 weeks.
HMCTS has invested in more staff in 2026, alongside system and process improvements and a programme of upskilling, to improve the processing time for applications and maintain outstanding caseload.
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