Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many offices undertaking probate work have closed in each of the past four years.

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, which was similar to the average length of time in 2019, which was between 6 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.

The Probate offices closing in the past four years were:

2020: Birmingham District Probate Registry (DPR), Bristol DPR, Ipswich DPR and London DPR

2021: Manchester DPR

All Probate Sub Registries closed between December 2019 and January 2020.

These closures were completed in conjunction with the opening of new Courts and Tribunal Service Centre in Birmingham where the majority of the increased probate workforce is now based. The launch of the online system for probate applications has made the service more accessible for applicants and removed the need to travel to city centre locations to have their oath sworn as part of the process.