Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of applications for probate were acknowledged as received by HM Courts and Tribunals Service following the submission of an online application and receipt of supporting paperwork within (a) 2, (b) 4, (c) 6, (d) 8 and (e) 10 weeks.

The online system automatically acknowledges receipt of all online applications at the point of submission and automatically acknowledges receipt of the documents, with 99% of users receiving an acknowledgement within 2 weeks.

Some cases need manual intervention to acknowledge the receipt of documents, the most common reasons being the user hasn’t provided the case reference or provided an incorrect reference and the documents are submitted before the application.

The attached table shows the proportion of applications for probate processed by HMCTS with 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32 weeks.

Cases can be delayed where more information is needed from the applicant, an application to stop a case from an interested party is in place, or where cases are complex.