Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, a) when did the department last make a review of staffing adequacy with regard to the Probate Service telephone service and b) when is the next review due.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service flexibly deploys probate staff across administrative work and call handling. Service performance is monitored daily, with resources moved between areas to manage demand and balance call answering with grant production.

Increased demand for probate can mean that waiting times for calls can, during certain periods of the day, be longer than HM Courts & Tribunals aim to provide and the service is reviewing what further steps can be taken to reduce waiting times whilst maintaining grant production levels.