Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government why applications for probate which require no additional documentation cannot be processed using Artificial Intelligence and completed immediately.

Despite record level of receipts in 2022 the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between 5 and 8 weeks.

HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.

Average waiting times for probate grants, are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to December 2022.

HMCTS is conducting an investigation to explore the potential applications of AI in the Courts and Tribunals, which raises important policy, ethical, legal, and social issues to be considered.