Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what average time has been taken by his Department to issue a grant of probate after receipt of an application in the most recent period for which that information is available.
Data showing the volume of applications for Grant of Probate that are outstanding includes both cases that have not yet been issued and also all cases which could not be processed by HMCTS, on initial receipt, due to missing or inaccurate information (cases which are ‘stopped’):
Outstanding1 Grant of Probate Application at 27 December 2020, England and Wales 1,2, 3, 4 | |||
Probate | |||
| Volume of outstanding applications | Volume of stopped applications |
|
27-Dec-20 | 20,759 | 18,824 |
|
The overall volume of outstanding cases has been steadily reducing in recent months.
The most recently published information regarding waiting times for a grant of probate covers July 2020 to September 2020 and is published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 26):
Average time to grant issue for probate grants, England and Wales 1,2, 3 | ||||
| Application submission to grant issue | Document receipt to grant issue3 | ||
| Mean weeks | Median weeks | Mean weeks | Median weeks |
July 2020 to September 2020 | 6.7 | 4.9 | 6 | 4.4 |
Source HMCTS Core Case Data |
|
|
|
In 2020 the level of applications being made increased and the service faced unprecedented challenges due to the impact of Covid 19.
Despite this, and as a result of HMCTS increasing resources to meet demand, the average length of time taken for a Grant of Probate to be issued improved quarter on quarter throughout the year.