Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the reasons for which probate applications are being delayed; and what steps his Department is taking to help tackle these delays.

HMCTS currently uses Exela Technologies Limited to scan paper probate applications and original wills onto our case management system. Exela has no role in assessing applications or authorising the production of grants of probate.

The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with significantly higher levels of receipts during January to March 2023. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.

HMCTS is focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 9 weeks.

Average waiting times for probate grants, are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to March 2023.