Administration of Estates: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of applications for (a) grants of probate, (b) letters of administration with a will and (c) letters of administration without a will took more than (i) 26, (ii) 52 and (iii) 70 weeks to complete in each of the last five years.
Answered by Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in the Probate Service in the quarterly Family Court Statistics bulletin, available at: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK. The published timeliness measure includes periods during which HM Courts & Tribunals Service is unable to progress an application, for example where further information or action is awaited from the applicant, or where a caveat is in place.
The attached Excel File contains data on the number and proportion of probate applications that took more than 26 weeks, 52 weeks and 70 weeks from receipt to issue.
More widely, we have worked hard to reduce waiting times for probate applicants, including through staff training and improving how applications are processed, which has resulted in record numbers of grants being issued over the last year.
Most probate applications are now granted within five weeks, down two weeks on a year earlier – but we understand how distressing delays can be in some cases. Applicants who feel their cases are not progressing can request an appointment with the probate team.
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