Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle delays with probate applications and (b) improve communication between probate offices and applicants.

The most recently published information regarding combined waiting times for a grant of probate, on paper and digital cases, covers January 2021 to March 2021 and is published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25):

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021

Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and as a result of HMCTS increasing resources to meet demand, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between four to six weeks.

HMCTS continues to listen to user feedback and to invest in the improvement of the online Probate system to make it more accessible and easier for applicants to understand.

Improvements have also been made to communication routes. 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.

Contact channels and operating hours have also been extended to meet user needs meaning the service can now be contacted via:

• webchat available at https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate/apply-for-probate (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 8am to 2pm).
• telephone on 0300 303 0648 (Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to 2pm).
• email at contactprobate@justice.gov.uk

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