Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints he has received about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.

The attached table shows the number of complaints about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.

HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.

HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.

HMCTS does not collate the management information on how many errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications.