Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service will publish (a) weekly data on the number of probate grants issued in England and Wales and (b) up to date data on the average time between application for and grant of probate.

Quarterly data on the number of probate grants issued in England and Wales are published within the Family Court Statistics Quarterly bulletin: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly. The latest publication was on 26th September, however the requested information for April-June 2019 has not yet been published while we investigate quality issues identified in the transition between two data systems.

Currently there are no plans to publish this data weekly but statisticians seek views from users as part of their regular consultation on the statistics to ensure they meet the Code of Practice for Statistics with regard to quality and value.

Statisticians are considering adding data on timeliness and will work in consultation with colleagues in Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and users of the data to confirm their plans prior to any publication.