Probate

(asked on 19th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what facilities exist for solicitors, practitioners and members of the public to obtain answers to their emails and telephone queries seeking information or progress updates from the Probate Service during the covid-19 outbreak; what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Probate Service in responding those inquiries; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 24th November 2020

The most recently published information regarding waiting times for a grant of probate covers April 2020 to June 2020 and is published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 26).

HMCTS increased resources in Spring 2020 in readiness of a potential increase in demand and waiting times have continued to improve despite the impact of Covid 19.

As of March 2020, all calls are now answered by the Courts & Tribunals Service Centres, which are equipped with modern technology to monitor performance levels and make improvements to the service being offered. The service can be contacted Monday to Thursday, 8am to 5pm or Friday, 8am to 4pm via:

For professional users, real time information about the progress of digital cases can be obtained via the online Probate service without the need to contact HMCTS.

The average wait for people telephoning the national Courts and Tribunal Service centre with queries relating to Probate between April 2019 to March 2020 was 2 minutes 21 seconds.

Volumes and waiting times for calls and emails have risen since March 2020, peaking at an average of 19 minutes in July 2020 but they are steadily improving, reducing to an average of 13 minutes in October 2020 and resources are being increased to meet the increased demand.

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