Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between the value of a deceased person’s estate and the cost of grant of probate; and whether the increases in the latter announced in the Budget represent the costs associated with the grant or will raise a surplus in addition to those costs.

On Friday 24 February 2017, after careful consideration of responses to consultation, the Government announced its intention to introduce a new banded system of fees for grants of probate, subject to Parliamentary approval. The original Government consultation and the response can both be found on the Ministry of Justice consultation hub website.

In 2015/16, the Government spent around £1.9 billion on our courts and tribunals and recovered only around £700m through fees and other income.

The new probate fees are fair and proportionate in that they are linked to the value of the estate. Our plan to raise the threshold under which no probate fee is payable from £5,000 to £50,000 will ensure that more than half of estates will pay no fee at all. No one will pay more than 1% of the total estate value in fees.

Parliament has given the Lord Chancellor the power, through section 180 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, to set court and tribunal fees above the cost of the service. All of the additional income that the fees will raise must be reinvested back into our courts and tribunals.

The Government is committed to providing a modern, world-leading justice system which is proportionate and accessible. Fees are necessary to support an effective courts and tribunals system that supports victims and vulnerable people, and is easy for ordinary people to use.