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Probate: Standards

Asked by Sarah OlneyLiberal DemocratMinistry of JusticeTabled Answered 8 September 2026UIN 21306

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the current average wait time for processing probates at the Probate Office.

Answered by Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in the quarterly Family Court Statistics bulletin, available at: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

Published data on probate timeliness by application type are available from Q3 2019 to Q1 2026. HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold equivalent data for the period from Q1 2015 to Q1 2019. While an overall timeliness figure is available for Q2 2019, data disaggregated by application type is not available. Consequently, a complete annual figure for 2019 cannot be provided.

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