Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people in England and Wales in each household income band will pay (a) more or (b) less under the Government's proposed reforms to probate fees.

The proposed probate fees do not relate to household income, but to the value of the estate passing under the grant of representation. Therefore, no assessment has been made relating to household income.

Our plans to raise the threshold from £5,000 to £50,000 will lift around 25,000 additional estates annually out of paying fees altogether and more than half of estates in England and Wales will pay no probate fee at all. Of those who do pay, around 60% will pay £250 – close to the current fee level – and around 80% of estates will pay £750 or less. No one will pay more than 0.5% of the total estate value and all fees are recoverable from the estate.

Any income raised must be spent on funding an efficient and effective courts and tribunal service. This allows the Government to subsidise other parts of the system that do not recover their costs in fees, including domestic violence proceedings in the family court and tribunal cases before the First-tier Tribunal concerning mental health.